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A  SPECIAL  JOURNAL  OF  INFORMATION,  DISCUSSION  AND 
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V  


A  HISTORY  OF  PAPER 


ITS  klENE;S.l£N  1 


ITS  REVELATIONS. 


Origin  and  Manufacture,  Utility  and  Commercial  Value 
an  Indisi'ensahle  Staple  of  the  Com- 
mercial World. 


Holyoke,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A.  : 
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1882. 


THE  GTTTY  CHtfTEB 
UBRARY 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


25 


number  of  bodies  buried  in  these  caverns  must 
have  been  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact,  that, 
after  thus  being  drawn  upon  for  centuries,  they 
still  supply  the  Arabs  with  articles  of  sale  eagerly 
bought  by  Europeans,  and  also  fuel,  and  some- 
times clothing,  for  themselves. 

Is  the  papyrus — the  final  product,  and  not  the 
plant — a  true  paper  ?  Some  good  recent  writers 
use  expressions  from  which  we  can  only  infer  that 
they  so  consider  it,  and  yet  they  often  compare  it 
with  paper  as  now  made  in  terms  which  leave  a 
wide  distinction  between  the  two,  distinguishing 
the  former  as  a  natural  and  the  latter  as  a  manu- 
factured paper.  The  writer  upon  this  subject  in 
Knight's  Mechanical  Dictionary  defines  paper  as 
"  a  material  made  in  thin  sheets  from  a  pulp  of 
ground  rags  or  other  fiber,  and  used  for  writing 
or  printing  upon  or  for  wrapping. '  Further  on,  he 
gives  a  fuller  definition  of  "  true  paper  "  as  "  made 
of  rags  or  other  vegetable  fiber,  reduced  to  a 
pulp,  gathered  into  a  sheet,  felted  in  setting,  and 
dried."  Worcester  and  Webster,  among  the  uses 
to  which  paper  may  be  applied,  add  to  "writing, 
printing  or  wrapping,"  "  various  other  purposes." 
Webster,  correctly  as  it  seems  to  us,  omits  the 


26 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


condition  that  the  pulp  must  be  obtained  by 
grinding  rags  or  other  fiber.  And  although,  as 
we  well  know,  paper,  either  in  its  completed  state, 
or  in  the  various  stages  preceding  that,  may  be, 
and  constantly  is,  employed  for  other  important 
purposes  than  that  of  a  writing  or  printing  ma- 
terial, do  we  not  daily  see  true  paper  that  can  be 
used  for  no  other  purpose  than  a  writing  mate- 
rial without  a  total  change  in  its  character  ? 
The  definition  of  a  thing  is  strictly  the  descrip- 
tion of  that  thing  as  it  is,  without  reference  to 
the  process  by  which  it  may  become  so,  or  any 
other  by  which  it  may  be  transformed  to  some- 
thing else.  When  we  go  beyond  that  we  trench 
upon  the  province  of  the  encyclopaedist,  or  the 
essayist.  Paper  would  be  paper  if  we  found  it 
growing  in  leaves  upon  the  trees,  as  it  would  be 
paper  still  although  it  could  not  be,  by  any  pres- 
sure, changed  into  papier  mache.  We  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  it  is  not  a  uniform  and  valuable 
quality  of  paper  as  we  have  it,  that  it  can  be  so 
transformed  and  also  used  for  many  purposes 
aside  from  its  original  one,  but  only  that  this  is 
not  an  essential  property  in  its  character,  not  a 
necessary  element  in  the  definition  of  the  word. 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


27 


We  may  therefore  safely  follow  Webster  in 
eliminating  from  the  definition  of  a  true  paper, 
the  requirement  that  the  pulp  from  which  it  is 
made  shall  be  artificially  prepared  by  grinding,  or 
otherwise.  With  this  variation  from  the  old 
authorities,  the  writing  material  which  the  old 
world  obtained  from  the  papyrus  plant  must  be 
recognized  as  a  genuine  paper.  In  the  folds  of 
that  wonderful  reed  the  old  Egyptian  paper  man- 
ufacturers found  a  pulp  sufficient  for  their  pur- 
pose and  abundantly  supplied  with  a  natural  size. 
Beyond  that  their  processes  were  coincident  with 
our  own,  however  much  they  differed  in  the  de- 
tails of  their  application.  To  be  sure,  with  all 
the  beating  and  pressure  it  received,  the  original 
form  of  the  plant's  fiber  was  not  destroyed,  but, 
after  thousands  of  years,  may  be  now  plainly  seen 
in  the  earliest  specimens  of  papyri  roll  extant. 
But  we  do  not  now  destroy  the  fiber  of  the  sub- 
stance from  which  we  make  paper  for  the  sake  of 
destroying  it,  but  because  it  is  necessary  in  order 
that  it  may  become  a  pulp  at  all,  and  thus  be 
ready  for  a  new  arrangement  of  its  particles. 

Paper  must  be  in  "  thin  "  sheets.  This  is  a 
somewhat  indefinite  requirement.    The  papyri 


28 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


were  so  bulky  that  a  copy  of  Ovid's  Metamor- 
phoses, which  in  modern  print  and  paper  fills 
only  a  very  small  duodecimo  volume,  covered 
eighteen  papyri  rolls,  occupying  the  space  upon 
a  library  shelf  of  as  many  octavo  volumes.  A 
copy  of  the  works  of  Homer,  Virgil,  Livy,  Sallust, 
or  similar  authors,  would  have  filled  more  than 
ten  times  as  many  rolls.  And  this  fact  we  must 
take  into  consideration  when  we  read  of  the  large 
number  of  volumes  in  the  Alexandrian  and  other 
ancient  libraries ;  for  a  volume  meant  simply  a 
roll.  And  yet  the  papyri  rolls  were  so  flexible 
that,  with  some  little  re-moistening,  they  may, 
after  their  immensely  prolonged  drying,  to-day  be 
rolled  and  unrolled.  They  had  no  such  thickness 
as  would  exclude  them  from  the  list  of  true 
papers. 

The  papyrus  was,  then,  in  our  estimation,  a 
true  paper ;  while  it  still,  as  we  shall  presently 
show,  differed  widely  in  some  respects  from  the 
true  paper  of  to-day. 

We  speak  familiarly  of  paper  as  being  used  for 
various  purposes  which  do  not  come  within  the 
definition  we  have  given ;  meaning,  not  that 
finished  paper  is  so  used,  but  that  its  fiber  in  dif- 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


29 


ferent  stages  of  preparation  may  be  turned  to 
those  purposes,  as  the  manufacture  of  papier 
mache  and  other  articles  which  are  certainly  not 
"  thin,"  and  in  this  respect  the  papyrus  is  its  equal, 
for  Herodotus  tells  us  that  "  the  priests  wear 
shoes  made  of  the  byblos,  the  sails  of  the  Egyp- 
tian boats  are  made  of  the  byblos,  the  priests  read 
to  me  out  of  a  byblos  roll  the  names  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  kings." 

The  close  affiliation  between  paper,  as  we  now 
have  it,  and  the  vegetable  substances  which,  with 
more  or  less  preparation,  were,  in  the  early  ages, 
used  in  its  place,  is  indicated  by  the  modern  no- 
menclature of  the  paper  world.  Thus  we  have 
paper  from  papyrus,  and  Bible  from  the  Egyptian 
name  of  the  same  plant.  Folio  is  from  the  Latin 
folium,  a  leaf,  and  we  still  use  it,  in  its  translated 
form,  both  for  the  foliage  of  a  tree  and  the  thin 
sheets  of  a  book.  Page  is  the  Latin  pagina,  a 
written  leaf.  Tablets  from  tabula,  a  board ;  the 
the  board  smeared  with  wax  used  by  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  to  write  upon.  Library  is  from  the 
Latin,  liber,  a  book,  but  previously  the  inner  bark 
of  a  tree,  from  which  the  material  for  books  was 
made.    It  is  a  happy,  but  doubtless  accidental, 


30 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


coincidence,  that  the  same  word  means  free,  un- 
shackled, independent,  open  and  fresh.  Schedule 
is  from  sckeda,  the  Latin  for  a  strip  of  papyrus, 
and  afterwards  for  a  sheet  of  paper.  Code  and 
codicil  are  from  codex,  the  trunk  or  stem  of  a 
tree.  Volume  is  from  vo lumen,  any  thing  that  is 
rolled  or  wound  up7  as  sheets  of  papyrus,  and 
afterwards  of  parchment,  were  wound  up.  In  a 
more  liberal  sense  it  was  applied  to  the  water 
which  rolls  over  a  fall,  and  to  other  rolling  and 
pouring  masses.  But  the  first  volumes  were  of 
papyrus;  and  each  separate  roll,  as  now  each 
bound  collection  of  written  or  printed  leaves,  was 
counted  a  volume  ;  a  fact  which  one  must  always 
bear  in  mind  when  he  reads  of  the  immense  num- 
ber of  volumes  in  some  ancient  libraries.  It  will 
moderate  his  wonder  why  so  few  names  of  the 
books  which  composed  them  have  come  down 
to  us. 

We  may  perhaps  as  well  speak  here  as  else- 
where of  the  effect  which  the  cheapness  and 
abundance  of  printed  books  has  had  in  reducing 
the  use  of  sculpture  upon  stone  or  other  endur- 
ing material  for  the  preservation  of  national 
records.    For  this,  we  now  trust  to  the  immense 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


numbers  and  constant  reproduction  of  printed 
histories.  With  this  aid,  the  plain,  unsculptured 
shaft  on  Bunker  Hill  tells  its  story  as  satisfactor- 
ily, and  more  eloquently,  than  Cleopatra's  needles, 
with  all  their  wealth  of  tediously  inscribed  hiero- 
glyphics, tell  the  history  which  they  were  de- 
signed to  commemorate. 

Parchment,  the  material  most  used  by  the  an- 
cients in  the  place  of  paper,  next  to  the  prepared 
papyrus,  is  the  general  name  for  the  skins  of  cer- 
tain animals,  when  prepared  to  write  upon,  and 
"  for  other  purposes."  It  is  told  in  the  old  books 
that  when  Eumenes,  king  of  Pergamos,  some  200 
years  B.  C,  was  ambitious  to  build  up  a  large 
library,  the  Ptolemy  then  ruling  in  Egypt,  jealous 
of  rivalry  in  that  respect,  prohibited  the  export  of 
papyrus,  and  that  Eumenes  finally  circumvented 
him  and  accomplished  his  purpose  by  the  inven- 
tion of  parchment,  which  received  its  Latin  name, 
pergamena,  from  that  of  his  kingdom.  If  the 
story  is  true,  the  zeal  and  ingenuity  of  Eumenes 
availed  him  little,  for,  when  Marc  Antony  was 
one  of  the  masters  of  the  world,  he  seized  the 
library  of  Pergamos  and  presented  it  to  his  bril- 
liant and  beautiful  but  profligate  mistress,  Cleo- 


32 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


patra,  the  Egyptian  queen,  who  added  it  to  that, 
already  famous,  at  Alexandria,  whose  fate  it 
eventually  shared. 

It  is,  however,  quite  certain  that  the  skins  of 
animals  were  among  the  earliest  materials  used  in 
the  place  afterwards  filled  by  paper.  Herodotus 
tells  us  that  the  skins  of  sheep  and  goats  were  in 
common  use  as  a  writing  material  more  than  two 
centuries  at  least  before  the  time  of  Eumenes, 
and  other  writers  more  obscurely  refer  to  it  as  in 
use  long  before  that  time.  Rev.  Dr.  Humphrey 
Prideaux,  an  eminent  philosophical  writer  in  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  claimed 
that  the  authentic  copy  of  "  The  Law "  which 
Hilkiah  found  in  the  Temple  and  sent  to  King 
Josiah,  must  have  been  on  parchment,  as  no  other 
writing  material  could  have  lasted  for  the  period 
of  830  years  which  lay  between  the  writing  of 
that  copy  of  the  Law  and  the  reign  of  Josiah. 
The  intimate  relations  between  the  Jews  and  the 
Egyptians,  and  modern  discoveries  as  to  the  dur- 
ability of  papyrus  paper,  somewhat  impair  the 
force  of  Dr.  Prideaux's  reasoning.  But  we  still 
have  no  instance  of  papyrus  paper  preserved  for 
so  long  periods,  except  when  buried  with  cities 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


33 


or  with  men,  it  has  been  excluded  from  the  air 
and  other  destructive  agents.  And,  setting  aside 
all  Hebraic  story,  we  still  have  the  authority  of 
Diodorus  and  Herodotus  to  the  use,  long  before 
the  time  of  Eumenes,  by  Greeks,  Romans  and 
Persians,  of  skins  dressed  substantially  as  parch- 
ment now  is.  What  may  rightly  be  claimed  for 
Eumenes  and  those  associated  with  him  is,  that 
they  made  improvements  in  the  manufacture  of 
parchment  which  better  fitted  it  for  use  in  book- 
making. 

If  parchment  had  a  later  invention  than  papyrus 
paper,  it  has  also  had  a  longer  continuance.  Fine 
parchment  is  now  made  from  the  skins  of  sheep 
and  she-goats,  but  a  better  article  from  those  of 
kids,  lambs  and  young  calves ;  the  finest  vellum 
from  the  skins  of  still-born  calves,  kids  and  lambs. 
Of  the  coarser  parchments,  Knight's  Mechanical 
Dictionary  says,  with  as  much  truth,  and  with 
more  wit  than  is  commonly  found  in  encyclo- 
paedias— this  dictionary  being  an  encyclopaedia  : 

"  Coarse  parchment  for  drum  heads,  etc.,  is 
made  from  calves',  wolves',  asses'  and  he-goats' 
skins.  The  asses'  skin  is  said  to  be  remarkably 
sonorous,  and  it  is  no  wonder,  seeing  the  amount 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


of  noise  it  has  contained  at  various  times.  The 
Greeks  found  the  bones  of  the  ass  a  superior 
article  for  making  flutes.  The  flute  and  the 
drum,  a  rich  asinine  combination,  which  probably 
suggested  the  Scotch  bag-pipe  whose  drone  is 
nearest  to  the  paternal  bray  of  anything  artificial." 

In  the  manufacture  of  parchment  to  be  written 
upon,  the  object  was  to  render  the  skins  thin, 
pliant,  and  of  a  uniform  surface,  free  from  fatty 
matter  and  other  obstacles  to  its  receiving  the 
fluid  ink  properly.  The  other  qualities  having 
already  been  in  a  good  measure  attained,  it  was 
probably  the  aim  and  success  of  Eumenes  and 
his  associates  to  prepare  the  surface  of  the  parch- 
ment to  properly  "  take  "  the  fluid  ink  and  pre- 
vent the  necessity  of  recourse  to  the  old  paint-like 
article  used  with  a  brush — a  much  slower  and 
more  costly  method  of  writing  or  copying. 

Knight  thus  describes  the  modern  manufacture 
of  parchment:  "After  removing  the  wool,  the 
skin  is  steeped  in  lime  and  then  stretched  on  a 
wooden  frame :  its  face  is  then  scraped  with  a 
half  round  knife.  The  next  process  consists  in 
rubbing  the  skin,  previously  sprinkled  with  pow- 
dered chalk  or  slacked  lime,  and  scraping  it  with 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


35 


a  knife.  It  is  then  rubbed  with  a  lamb  skin  hav- 
ing the  wool  on,  so  as  to  smooth  the  surface  and 
raise  a  very  fine  nap ;  after  which,  if  any  greasy 
matter  remains,  it  is  again  steeped  in  the  lime  pit 
for  a  few  days.  The  grain  surface  is  then  re- 
moved with  a  knife  and  the  skin  pumiced,  if 
necessary,  to  give  it  an  equal  thickness." 

A  peculiarity  of  the  manufacture,  not  men- 
tioned by  Knight,  is  that  the  frame,  technically 
"  the  herse,"  upon  which  the  skins  are  stretched, 
by  the  best  makers,  is  surrounded  by  screws, 
much  like  the  pegs  by  which  the  violin  is  tuned. 
This  is  probably  a  modern  invention,  the  an- 
cients having  used  a  hoop,  as  the  smaller  manu- 
facturers now  do.  But,  even  with  the  herse,  there 
is  no  automatic  power,  but  merely  a  use  of  natural 
mechanical  forces  applied  by  hand. 

A  fine  proof  of  the  value  of  parchment  is  found 
in  the  fact  that,  during  the  dark  ages,  the  monks 
used  the  rolls  containing  the  great  works  of  an- 
tiquity— and  which  their  more  enlightened  prede- 
cessors had  treasured  up  in  the  monastic  libraries 
— as  a  material  on  which  to  indite  their  supersti- 
tious legends  and  scholastic  controversial  essays. 
Upon  the  revival  of  learning,  chemical  science 


36 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


found  the  means  to  remove  the  inferior  ink  of 
the  convents  and  revive  the  better,  which  had 
been  erased.  In  those  curiously  restored  manu- 
scripts— known  as  palimpsests — some  of  the 
choicest  classics  have  been  preserved  as  perfectly 
as  though  they  had  been  hidden  in  the  ashes  of 
Herculaneum  or  the  catacombs  of  the  Ptolemies. 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


37 


PART  II. 

The  Second  Era  of  Paper  Making — Hand-Made 
Paper  from  Vegetable  Pulp. 

It  being  admitted  that  the  papyri  rolls  were 
essentially  a  true  paper,  and  that  parchment  is 
well  adapted  to  some  of  the  purposes  for  which 
paper  is  used,  and  in  some  degree  to  others,  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  the  great  revolution  in  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  manufacture  took 
place  when  paper  was  first  made  of  rags,  or  other 
vegetable  fiber,  reduced  to  a  pulp,  gathered  into 
a  sheet,  felted  in  setting,  and  dried. 

"Human  invention,"  it  is  said,  "had  in  this 
case  been  anticipated  by  the  wasp,  which  may  be 
considered  as  a  professional  paper-maker,  devot- 
ing a  large  portion  of  her  time  and  energies  to 
the  production  of  this  fabric,  of  which  she  builds 
her  nest.    For  this  purpose  she  seeks  dry  wood 


38 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


— fence  rails  and  weather-beaten  boards  being  a 
favorite  source  of  supply — which  she  saws,  or 
rasps,  by  mastication,  into  a  paste,  which,  mixed 
with  a  natural  size  exuded  for  the  purpose,  she 
spreads  into  a  sheet  in  a  manner  truly  marvelous." 

As  neither  the  wasp,  hornet,  or  any  other  in- 
sect which  operates  in  a  similar  manner,  ever 
used  its  product  as  a  writing  material — perhaps 
from  ignorance  of  the  bleaching  and  polishing 
processes — we  have  no  means  of  determining  the 
date  when  the  insect  manufacturer  began  :  author- 
ities differ  as  to  the  probabilities — all  the  way 
from  six  thousand  to  six  million,  or  more,  years. 
The  date  of  the  invention  by  man  of  the  art  of 
paper-making  from  a  vegetable  pulp,  prepared 
artifically  from  some  vegetable  fiber,  is  somewhat 
less  uncertain,  but  it  varies  still  over  three  hun- 
dred years  in  the  estimate  of  different  historians. 
The  earliest  estimates  place  it  in  the  reign  of 
Wan-te  of  the  Chinese  imperial  dynasty,  which 
lasted  from  the  years  179  to  156  before  Christ; 
the  latest  at  about  200  A.  D. 

So  far  as  we  have  any  information,  the  Chinese 
have  an  undoubted  title  to  the  honor  of  the  in- 
vention.   Four  kinds  of  paper  have  been  made 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


39 


in  China  at  least  ever  since  the  latest  of  these 
dates,  and  it  may  be  that  their  invention  or  im- 
provement from  time  to  time  caused  the  diversity 
of  opinions  we  have  mentioned.  All  these  kinds 
appear  to  have  been  known  as  early  as  A.  D. 
250,  and  to  have  experienced  very  little  change 
from  that  time  until  the  Celestial  Empire  was 
recently  opened  to  the  influences  of  our  terrestrial 
civilization.  These  papers  are  known  as  Rice, 
Silk,  Bamboo  and  Bark. 

Rice  paper  is  a  material  so  delicate  and  filmy 
that  at  the  first  glance  one  would  think  it  illy 
adapted  to  receive  writing  or  printing ;  but  it  is 
much  used  for  those  purposes,  and  we  have  seen 
a  beautiful  little  volume  composed  of  it  and  filled 
with  exquisite  paintings  of  flowers.  It  is  made 
from  the  pith  of  a  leguminous  plant,  which  the 
Chinese  import  from  India  and  the  island  of 
Formosa,  where  it  grows  in  abundance.  The 
pith,  having  been  prepared  of  the  desired  length 
for  the  sheet,  is  cut  spirally  into  a  thin  slice,  which 
is  then  flattened,  pressed  and  dried.  It  obtains 
its  name  by  receiving  a  sizing  wholly  or  prin- 
cipally of  rice  water.  The  similarity  of  this  proc- 
ess to  the  preparation  of  papyrus  is  so  striking 


4Q 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


as  to  render  it  probable  that  it  was  suggested 
by  it. 

Bark  paper  is  made  from  the  smaller  branches 
of  a  variety  of  the  mulberry  tree.  The  bark,  after 
being  separated  from  the  stem  by  boiling  in  lye, 
is  macerated  in  water  for  several  days ;  the  outer 
part  scraped  off,  and  the  inner  boiled  and  stirred 
in  lye  until  it  separates.  It  is  then  washed  in  a 
pan  or  sieve,  and  worked  by  the  hands  into  a 
pulp,  which  is  afterwards  spread  on  a  table  and 
beaten  fine  with  a  mallet.  It  is  next  placed  in  a 
tub  with  an  infusion  of  rice  and  a  root  called 
oreni,  and  all  thoroughly  mixed.  The  sheets  are 
formed  by  dipping  a  mould  made  of  strips  of  bul- 
rushes, confined  in  a  frame  into  the  vat.  After 
moulding,  the  sheets  are  laid  one  upon  another 
with  strips  of  reed  between.  A  board  loaded 
with  weights  is  then  laid  upon  the  pile  to  express 
the  water,  and,  when  that  is  accomplished,  they 
are  separated  and  dried  in  the  sun.  This  paper 
is  even  more  delicate  than  the  rice;  so  much  so 
that  when  it  is  necessary  to  write  on  both  sides 
of  a  page  two  must  be  glued  together.  Suppos- 
ing, as  the  natural  order  seems  to  suggest,  that 
the  rice  paper  was  the  first  and  the  bark  the 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


41 


second  made  by  the  Chinese,  we  have  here  the 
first  appearance  of  the  pulping  process  in  the 
manufacture.  The  bamboo  paper,  made  from  the 
fibre  of  that  plant,  reduced  to  a  pulp  and  gathered 
in  films,  is,  however,  very  ancient,  and  possibly 
older  than  the  bark. 

The  silk  paper  is  the  victim  of  a  misnomer, 
arising  from  the  misinformation  of  early  travelers, 
which  it  has  been  found  almost  impossible  to 
correct,  for  it  is  commonly  believed  to  be  made 
of  silk.  Silk  is  an  animal,  not  a  vegetable,  sub- 
stance, and,  although  a  few  silken  rags  or  a  little 
refuse  silk  may  occasionally  be  mixed  with  other 
material,  they  cannot  by  themselves  be  reduced 
to  a  pulp  suitable  for  making  paper.  The  silk 
paper  of  China  is  made,  like  our  own,  from  cotton 
and  linen  rags,  hemp,  unmanufactured  cotton  and 
the  like,  sometimes  mingled  with  wood  and  bam- 
boo pulp  and  possibly  with  a  little  silk.  The 
rags,  cotton  and  hemp,  are  prepared  by  being  cut 
and  well  washed.  They  are  then  bleached,  and 
by  natural  maceration  of  twelve  days'  duration 
converted  into  a  pulp.  This  is  made  into  balls 
weighing  about  four  pounds,  which,  having  been 
saturated  with  water,  are  spread  upon  a  frame  of 


42 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


fine  reeds  and  pressed  under  heavy  weights.  The 
drying  is  completed  by  suspension  of  the  sheets 
upon  the  wall  of  a  proper  room ;  and  they  are 
finished  by  being  coated  with  a  gum  size,  and 
polished  with  some  smooth,  hard  substance.  The 
sheets  are  sometimes  of  very  large  dimensions  — 
reaching  twelve  feet  in  length  with  a  correspond- 
ing breadth,  the  moulds  being  managed  by  the 
aid  of  pulleys. 

The  art  of  paper-making  spread  from  China 
throughout  Central  Asia,  and  there  the  Saracens 
found  it  during  their  conquests  in  Bukhara,  about 
A.  D.  704.  It  is  curious,  in  this  connection,  to 
note  the  method  of  the  paper  manufacture  as  it 
was  found  by  Moncroft  in  his  travels  a  little 
before  18 18,  in  the  neighboring  region  of  Thibet: 

At  a  little  distance  from  us,  and  close  to  the  river,  two  people 
are  engaged  in  preparations  for  making  paper.  They  have  two 
large  bags  of  old  paper  that  has  been  written  upon,  manufactured 
from  the  bark  of  the  Latbarua.  A  few  large  flat  stones  are  placed 
near  the  edge  of  the  river  where  a  stream  has  been  divided  from 
the  main  current  by  a  low  bank  of  sods.  On  the  grass  are  two 
frames  of  wood,  covered  on  one  side  with  fine  cloth,  the  other 
being  open,  thus  forming  a  shallow  tray.  The  workmen  begin  by 
dipping  some  of  the  old  paper  in  the  water,  and  then  beat  it  upon 
a  flat  stone  with  a  small  round  one  until  it  is  reduced  to  a  pulp. 
One  of  the  trays  is  then  placed  in  the  broad  part  of  the  canal, 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


43 


leaving  a  space  for  the  water  to  run  under  it.  The  pulp  is  then 
put  into  a  gear  pump  with  water  and  worked  into  a  fine  paste.  It 
is  then  poured  upon  the  cloth  and  thus  sunk  two  or  three  inches 
in  the  stream,  so  that  the  water  rises  through  the  cloth  into  the 
tray  and  still  further  dilutes  the  pulp.  The  floating  impurities  are 
picked,  and  the  pulp  agitated  by  hand  until  it  is  supposed  to  be 
sufficiently  clear,  when  the  current  of  water  is  lessened.  The 
workman  sees  if  the  cloth  be  equally  covered  with  pulp,  and  if 
any  spots  look  thin,  he  stirs  with  his  finger  some  other  that 
appears  too  thickly  covered,  and  raises  a  cloud  of  paste  which  he 
leads  to  the  thin  place,  and  by  making  a  little  eddy  with  a  gradually 
decreasing  motion  deposits  it  there.  When  the  sheet  is,  by  this 
simple  process  rendered  even,  it  is  raised  out  of  the  water  and 
laid  upon  the  ground  to  dry.  After  the  greater  portion  of  the 
moisture  is  extracted  it  is  gradually  inclined  from  its  horizontal 
position,  until  when  nearly  dry  it  becomes  upright.  When  per- 
fectly hard,  one  corner  of  the  large  sheet  is  lifted  from  the  cloth 
and  then  the  whole  detached  by  hand. 

It  is  a  long  way  from  this  primitive  process 
and  these  rude  appliances  to  the  costly  modern 
paper  mill  filled  with  complicated  machinery  and 
skilled  manufacturers.  But  it  is  the  first  step 
which  is  half  the  journey,  and  the  proverbial 
persistence  of  the  orientals  in  adhering  to  old 
methods  renders  it  probable  that  the  paper- 
making  which,  in  1817,  Mr.  Moncroft  found  in 
Thibet  was  very  like  that  found  A.  D.  704  by 
the  Arabian  conqueror  in  Bukhara:  somewhat 


44 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


more  rude,  perhaps,  in  its  appliances,  but  essen- 
tially the  same  in  its  operations. 

The  material  for  the  Bukhara  paper  is,  how- 
ever, said  to  have  been  cotton.  At  least  that 
was  the  material  used  by  the  Arabians  when  that 
enterprising  and  cultivated  people  carried  the 
manufacture  home.  In  the  eighth  century  the 
Saracens  made  large  conquests  in  Spain,  where 
they  established  the  flourishing  Kingdom  of 
Grenada,  rich  in  many  arts,  among  which  was 
that  of  paper-making  for  which  they  at  first, 
probably  of  necessity,  used  flax,  although  in 
their  old  Arabian  home  cotton  had  been  the  chief 
material.  Cotton,  however,  soon  resumed  its 
reign.  The  raw  cotton  being  used,  the  product 
was  yellow  and  brittle  and  the  Saracens  made 
little  improvement  in  it.  Christian  Spaniards, 
who  had  learned  the  art,  remedied  the  difficulty 
in  1085  A.  D.,  by  substituting  rags,  and  the  same 
class,  in  Xatina,  an  ancient  city  of  Valencia,  in 
1 151,  made  the  further  improvement  of  stamping 
the  rags,  cotton,  etc.,  into  pulp,  by  water  power. 
The  paper  of  this  city  became  famous,  and  was 
exported  both  to  the  East  and  the  West. 

Cotton  paper  became  general  about  the  close 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


45 


of  the  twelfth  century,  but  in  the  fourteenth, 
having  been  found  as  it  was  then  made,  not  to 
possess  sufficient  strength  or  solidity  for  many 
purposes,  it  was  almost  entirely  superseded  by 
that  made  of  hemp  and  linen  rags;  not  weakened 
in  their  fibre  in  bleaching  as  they  are  in  the 
present  mode,  which  destroys  the  natural  gum. 
These  old  linen  papers,  well  sized  with  gelatine, 
retain  their  original  qualities  in  many  specimens 
even  to  the  present  day.  The  manufacture  of 
this  class  of  paper  became  common  in  France, 
Spain  and  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
firs t  German  mill  was  built  at  Nuremberg,  in 
1390.  There  are  claims  of  the  existence  of  a 
document  written  upon  English  linen  paper 
bearing  the  date  of  1320;  but  the  best  English 
authority  which  we  are  able  to  consult  believes 
that  the  manufacture  did  not  exist  there  until 
near  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  the 
"  Bartolomceus  "  of  Wynkin  de  Worde,  the  father 
of  English  typography,  (published  in  1496)  speaks 
of  a  superior  kind  of  paper  made  for  that  work 
by  Thomas  Tate  at  his  mills  in  Stevenhenge, 
Hertfordshire.  In  1498,  Henry  VII.  gave  this 
mill  the  munificent  subsidy  of  sixteen  shillings 


46 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


and  eight  pence,  which  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
survived,  for  we  hear  no  more  of  it,  although 
Tate  lived  until  15 14.  In  1588,  one  Spielman,  a 
German,  and  jeweler  to  her  majesty,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  established  a  mill  at  Dartford,  and  got 
knighted  for  his  enterprise.  But,  probably  owing 
to  the  civil  wars  and  the  political  disturbances 
connected  with  them,  it  was  long  before  the  paper 
manufacture  flourished  in  Great  Britain.  While 
France,  by  the  superior  quality  of  her  product, 
was  enabled  to  export  it  in  immense  quantities 
to  all  the  countries  of  Europe — 2,000,000  livres 
in  value  in  the  year  1658  to  Holland  alone — 
England  was  importing  almost  her  entire  con- 
sumption. In  1663,  says  one  authority,  she 
received  paper  to  the  value  of  ,£100,000  from 
Holland  alone;  evidently,  however,  the  product 
of  France,  as  according  to  the  same  authority 
the  first  paper  mill  in  Holland  was  not  built 
until  1685.  So  slow  was  the  progress  of  the 
manufacture  in  England  that  in  Anderson's 
Commercial  Dictionary,  printed  at  London  in 
1826,  it  is  stated  that  paper  was  first  manufact- 
ured in  the  Kingdom  in  1690,  and  that  up  to 
that  time  she  paid  ,£100,000  annually  for  that 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


47 


imported  from  France.  In  1690  the  war  with 
that  country  at  once  cut  off  this  supply  and 
called  for  high  duties  upon  that  received  from 
other  sources.  Even  the  prospect  of  this  state 
of  affairs  had  in  the  year  before  rendered  paper 
so  dear  that  printing  almost  entirely  ceased, 
except  for  absolutely  necessary  purposes ;  and 
now,  in  1690,  some  French  Protestant  refugees, 
who  had  settled  in  England  began  the  manufact- 
ure of  white  writing  paper — that,  then  recently, 
made  there  being  brown.  The  business  did  not, 
however,  become  general.  In  1696  a  bill  was 
brought  into  Parliament  to  lay  a  tax  of  25  per 
cent,  ad  valorem  upon  all  imported  paper,  parch- 
ment and  vellum,  20  per  cent,  upon  that  made  in 
England,  and  17  upon  that  in  the  hands  of 
dealers  for  sale.  While  this  bill  was  pending, 
one  company  published  a  protest  in  which  they 
stated  that  there  were  not  above  one  hundred 
paper  mills  in  all  England,  of  which  none,  except 
their  own,  made  anything  except  brown,  and  the 
coarsest  kinds  of  white,  paper.  Their  own  prod- 
uct was  worth  ,£8,000  per  annum ;  the  others 
would  not  average  ,£200  ;  that  of  all  England 
would  not  exceed  ,£28,000.    All  the  parchment, 


48 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


vellum  and  paste-board  made  or  imported  in  1695 
was  not  worth  more  than  £"10,000 

The  bill  nevertheless  became  a  law,  and,  not- 
withstanding the  slight  discrimination  in  favor  of 
the  British  manufacture,  we  are  not  surprised  to 
learn  that  in  171 3  it  had  "fallen  into  decay;" 
but  rather  to  find  that  in  that  year  Thomas  Wat- 
kin,  a  London  stationer,  succeeded  in  reviving  it, 
and  soon  carried  it  to  high  repute  and  perfection. 
It  increased  so  that  in  1721  the  whole  quantity 
of  paper  made  in  Great  Britain  rose  to  300,000 
reams,  or  about  two-thirds  the  whole  consump- 
tion of  the  realm.  The  value  of  that  made  two 
years  later,  in  1723,  was  estimated  at  ,£780,000. 

But  it  was  many  years  still,  after  this,  before 
the  English  manufacture  acquired  an  equality 
with  that  of  the  continent  of  Europe ;  for  it  is 
emphatically  stated  that  James  Whatman,  who 
in  1770  established  a  superior  manufacture  at 
Maidstone  in  Kent,  and  became  celebrated  in  his 
art,  had  first  worked  as  a  journeyman  in  some  of 
the  principal  paper  mills  "  on  the  Continent." 

After  this,  the  work  prospered.  In  1799 
twenty-four  millions  pounds  of  rags,  of  which 
over  one-third  were  imported  from  the  Continent, 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


49 


were  made  into  paper  in  England,  and  in  1800 
the  duty  on  paper  manufactured  in  the  Kingdom 
was  ,£315,805.  Favoring  laws  and  the  zeal  of 
the  manufacturer  had  made  that  change  from  the 
statement  of  the  Protest  of  1696. 

The  introduction  of  the  paper  manufacture 
into  the  British  colonies  in  North  America  ante- 
dated, however,  even  the  era  of  that  protest ; 
and  the  product  seems  to  have  been  not  of  the 
quality  styled  "  brown,"  although  doubtless,  not 
of  the  purity  which  would  delight  a  printer  of 
1 88 1.  Before  James  Whatman's  enterprise  was 
well  under  way  the  amount  of  the  paper-making 
in  the  colonies  was  so  great  as  to  intensely  dis- 
gust their  remarkably  affectionate,  cherishing 
mother  beyond  the  seas. 

William  Rettinghuysen,  whose  name  anglicized 
into  Rittenhouse,  was  afterwards  rendered  famous 
by  his  great  grandson,  David,  the  mathematician 
and  astronomer,  emigrated  from  Holland  among 
the  early  settlers  of  Germantown,  Pa.,  now  a 
suburb  of  Philadelphia ;  and  we  are  not  sure 
that  the  family  name  will  not  finally  find  its  chief 
and  most  lasting  honor  in  the  fact  that  its  first 
ancestor  in  America  established  in  1690  the  first 


50 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


paper  mill  in  America.  In  this  work  he  was 
associated  with  William  Bradford,  for  whose 
character  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  Franklin's 
Autobiography.  The  mill  was  built  upon  a  small 
stream  in  Roxborough  near  Philadelphia,  still 
called  Paper-Mill  Run.  Every  household  in  the 
northern  colonies  then  made  linen  from  the  flax 
grown  as  a  staple  upon  almost  every  farm,  and  it 
was  used  for  the  purposes  for  which  cotton  is 
now  chiefly  employed;  so  that  the  rags  and  worn- 
out  articles  of  this  material  furnished  abundant 
stock  for  one  mill. 

We  condense  the  following  statement  of  the 
other  paper  mills  in  America  previous  to  the  year 
1800  from  Joel  Munsell's  admirable  "  Chronology 
of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  Paper- Making." 

The  second  mill  in  America  was  built  in  17 10 
at  Crefeld,  now  a  part  of  Germantown,  by  Wil- 
liam De  Frees,  a  connection  of  the  Rittenhouse 
family.  In  1697  William  Bradford,  a  rather 
speculative  sort  of  person,  leased  his  quarter 
part  of  the  Roxborough  mill  to  William  and 
Nicholas  Rittenhouse  for  ten  years,  at  the  annual 
rent  of  seven  reams  of  printing  paper,  ten  reams 
of  good  writing  paper  and  two  reams  of  blue 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


paper.  In  1724  Bradford  applied  to  the  execu- 
tive council  of  New  York  for  the  exclusive  right 
to  make  paper  in  that  province  for  fifteen  years. 
Not  getting  it  he  did  not  have  a  chance  to  sell 
out  to  some  practical  manufacturer.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  he  built  no  mill  himself. 

In  1828  William  Demees  and  John  Gorgas, 
who  had  been  apprentices  of  Rittenhouse,  erected 
the  third  paper  mill  in  Pennsylvania,  and  are 
"said  to  have  made  paper  resembling  tanned 
asses'  skin  from  a  species  of  rotten  stone  found 
in  the  vicinity,  which  was  prepared  for  use  by 
being  thrown  into  the  fire  for  a  short  time."  If 
there  is  any  truth  in  the  story  the  stone  must 
have  been  fibrous  asbestos,  and  might  have 
remained  in  a  fire  more  than  a  short  time  without 
hurting  it.  In  1854  one  Maniere  took  out  a 
patent  in  England  for  making  a  fire-proof  paper 
out  of  this  substance :  but  it  was  known  in  the 
time  of  Pliny.  In  1728  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  granted  to  a  company  the  exclu- 
sive right  of  making  paper  in  the  Province  for 
ten  years  on  condition  that  in  the  first  fifteen 
months  they  should  make  115  reams  of  brown 
paper,  and  sixty  reams  of  printing  paper;  the 


52 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


second  year  the  same  with  the  addition  of  fifty 
reams  of  writing  paper,  and  each  year  afterwards 
the  same  with  the  further  addition  of  twenty-five 
reams  of  superior  writing  paper.  The  same  vice 
clogged  the  paper  manufacture  which  for  many 
years  retarded  the  progress  of  the  woolen  :  each 
maker,  instead  of  perfecting  himself  in  a  single 
branch  of  his  business,  undertook  all ;  the  same 
mill  in  one  case  making  broadcloths,  satinets, 
cassimeres,  etc.,  and  in  the  other  the  several 
classes  of  paper. 

The  first  paper  mill  in  New  England — not 
then  specially  a  manufacturing  section — went 
into  operation  at  Milton,  Massachusetts,  in  1730, 
under  the  patent  granted  two  years  before.  The 
manager  was  David  Henchman,  a  Boston  book- 
seller, who  received  some  aid  from  the  General 
Court,  and  in  1731  exhibited  creditable  specimens 
of  his  work  before  that  august  body.  The  mill 
was  discontinued  after  a  few  years  from  lack  of 
a  skilled  workman;  but  it  was  revived  in  1770 — 
a  citizen  of  Boston  obtaining  for  a  British  soldier 
stationed  there,  a  furlough  long  enough  for  him 
to  put  it  in  operation  ;  a  favor  which  the  powers 
over  the  water  would  have  hardly  approved. 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


53 


The  public  interest  in  this  mill  is  shown  by  an 
announcement  in  the  News  Letter  in  i  769  that 
"the  bell  cart  will  go  through  Boston  before  the 
end  of  next  month,  to  collect  rags  for  the  paper 
mill  at  Milton,  when  all  people  who  will  encour- 
age the  paper  manufactory  may  dispose  of  them ;" 
and  the  public  zeal  was  spurred  by  the  adding  of 
the  following  poetic  effusion  : 

"  Rags  are  as  beauties  which  concealed  lie, 
But  when  in  paper  how  it  charms  the  eye. 
Pray  save  your  rajjs,  new  beauties  to  discover, 
For  paper,  truly,  every  one's  a  lover; 
By  the  pen  and  press  such  knowledge  is  displayed 
As  wouldn't  exist  if  paper  was  not  made. 
Wisdom  of  things,  mysterious,  divine, 
Illustriously  doth  on  paper  shine." 

In  1768  Christopher  Leffingwell  became  the 
first  paper-maker  in  Connecticut,  and  established 
a  mill  at  Norwich,  being  encouraged  by  a  bounty 
from  the  colony  of  two  pence  per  quire  on  all 
good  writing  paper,  and  one  penny  upon  all 
printing  and  common  paper.  In  1  770  he  received 
this  bounty  upon  4,020  quires  of  writing  paper 
and  10,600  of  printing  paper.  The  government 
of  the  colony,  probably  considering  the  industry 
well  established,  then  withdrew  its  bounty;  but 


54 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


the  country  was  close  upon  the  era  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  it  was  a  mistake  to  withdraw  encour- 
agement from  a  manufacture  which  furnished  a 
product  so  necessary  as  paper.  In  this  year 
there  were  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and 
Delaware — then  the  chief  seats  of  the  paper 
manufacture — forty  mills  whose  product  was 
valued  at  ,£100,000,  not,  probably,  the  pound 
sterling,  but  the  colonial  pound,  worth  in  Federal 
currency  three  dollars,  thirty-three  and  one-third 
cents.  Massachusetts  when  the  Revolution  com- 
menced had  but  three  small  paper  mills,  and 
Rhode  Island  only  one,  and  that  out  of  repair. 
Connecticut  had  at  least  one,  in  addition  to 
Leffingwell's ;  that  of  Watson  and  Ledyard  at 
East  Hartford,  which  in  1776  wholly  supplied 
the  press  of  Hartford — then  sending  out  eight 
thousand  copies  of  newspapers  weekly — and  also 
furnished  the  greater  part  of  the  writing  paper 
used  in  Connecticut  and  in  Western  Massachu- 
setts, as  well  as  much  of  that  required  in  the 
continental  army. 

In  Southern  New  York  there  were  in  1776  at 
least  two  mills  ;  as  Thomas  Loosely  and  Thomas 
Ems  obtained  exemption  from  military  service 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


55 


for  a  master  workman  and  two  attendants  for 
each  mill,  as  indispensable  to  the  prosecution  of 
the  business. 

Massachusetts,  Maryland,  South  Carolina  and 
other  provinces  at  once  took  measures  to  increase 
the  supply,  but  with  no  sufficient  effect.  The 
paper  famine  continued  to  be  severe,  and  what 
could  be  procured,  generally  of  the  poorest 
quality;  everything  like  rags  being  ground  up 
together  to  make  paper,  giving  it  the  peculiar 
tints  observable  in  the  publications  and  manu- 
scripts of  the  period.  Paper  sufficiently  thin, 
strong,  pliable  and  inflammable  for  the  making 
of  cartridges  was  especially  scarce.  Upon  the 
occupation  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia  by  the 
American  army  in  1778,  paper  of  this  class  was 
called  for  by  proclamation,  and  searched  for  by 
files  of  soldiers,  with  small  result,  the  largest 
quantity  being  a  sermon  preached  in  favor  of 
defensive  war  during  the  French  and  Indian 
troubles,  and  printed  by  Franklin.  Twenty-five 
hundred  copies  were  found  in  a  garret,  and 
employed  in  making  the  musket  cartridges  after- 
wards used  in  the  battle  of  Monmouth. 

In  1 78 1  the  public  printer  of  New  York  was 


J 


56 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


unable  to  obtain  paper  upon  which  to  print  the 
journal  of  the  Assembly. 

After  the  Revolution,  paper  mills  multiplied, 
but  not  so  rapidly  that  there  were  not  until  the 
end  of  the  century  frequent  periods  of  great 
scarcity,  sometimes  compelling  newspaper  pub- 
lishers in  certain  localities  to  suspend  their  issues 
for  a  time. 

The  greatest  seat  of  the  paper  manufacture  in 
America  is  now  found  in  the  four  western  coun- 
ties of  Massachusetts,  a  region  full  of  its  mills, 
and  with  flourishing  cities  and  towns  largely 
dependent  upon  it  for  their  prosperity.  In  the 
sixth  century  Cassiodorus  wrote  :  "  It  is  a  noble 
invention  of  ingenious  Memphis  that  the  beauti- 
ful texture  (papyrus  paper)  made  in  a  single  spot 
should  cover  all  the  writing  desks  of  the  world." 
The  world  is  practically  many  times  larger  now 
than  it  was  in  the  sixth  century,  and  has  a  great 
many  more  writing  desks  ;  and  it  is  certainly  a 
thing  of  note  that  the  "  beautiful  textures  "  made 
in  a  single  section,  circumscribed,  and  remote 
from  metropolitan  centres,  not  only  supply  a  very 
large  proportion  of  them,  but  supply  greater  needs, 
of  which  the  sixth  century  never  dreamed. 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


57 


The  pioneer  of  the  manufacture  in  this  region, 
to  which  it  is  now  so  familiar,  was  Zenas  Crane 
of  Worcester,  who  in  1799  went  "prospecting" 
through  it,  on  horseback — as  most  traveling  there 
was  then  done — in  search  of  a  proper  location  for 
a  paper  mill,  and  finally  selected  one  on  the  west 
branch  of  the  Housatonic  River  in  the  town  of 
Dalton,  Berkshire  County.  The  owner,  Martin 
Chamberlin,  was  so  doubtful  of  the  success  of  the 
enterprise  that  he  would  only  give  an  oral  "  per- 
mit to  build  and  try  it,"  and  after  the  thing  was 
done  gave  a  deed  "for  the  land  with  the  mill 
standing  thereon." 

The  mill,  afterwards  known  as  "  The  Old  Berk- 
shire," was  built  in  the  spring  of  1801,  by  Henry 
Wiswell  and  Zenas  Crane.  As  described  by  Mr. 
Charles  O.  Brown,  president  of  the  Carson  & 
Brown  Company,  which  now  owns  the  works 
which  have  succeeded  it,  it  was  a  one  vat  mill 
with  a  daily  capacity  for  making  20  "posts  "  con- 
taing  1 2 5  sheets  of  paper  each,  of  "cap  "  or  "  folio" 
size,  or  a  weight  of  from  100  to  200  pounds.  Mr. 
Crane  was  the  manager,  and,  in  addition,  there 
were  required  an  engineer  at  $3  a  week,  a  vat- 
man  and  coucher  at  $3  each,  a  lay-boy  at  60  cents 


58 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


and  board,  a  man  for  general  work,  and  two  girls 
at  75  cents  a  week  each  and  board  The  history 
of  the  business  in  Dalton  and  Berkshire  is  inter- 
esting, but  it  was  recently  told  in  an  essay  by 
Lieut-Governor  Weston,  which  was  published  in 
The  Paper  World,  and  is  also  too  local  for  our 
present  purpose,  except  in  so  far  as  it  illustrates 
the  general  progress  of  the  manufacture. 

About  the  time  of  the  building  of  the  Old  Berk- 
shire mill,  the  Fourdrinier  machine  was  invented 
and  although  it  was  several  years  before  it  was  in- 
troduced in  American  mills  and  many  before  the 
first  was  employed  in  Berkshire,  it  marked  a  new 
era  in  the  general  manufacture  and  we  suspend 
our  account  of  particular  establishments  to  note 
some  of  the  great  improvements  which  had  been 
made  previous  to  this  invention. 

The  first  point  in  the  manufacture  of  paper  is 
like  the  old  recipe  for  cooking  a  hare  :  "  First, 
catch  your  hare  " — First,  gather  your  rags.  Very 
much  depends  upon  the  character  of  the  rags, 
and  that  very  much  upon  the  civilization  and  re- 
finement of  the  region  in,  or  the  class  from  which, 
they  are  collected.  But  the  method  and  sources 
of  this  supply  in  themselves  form  a  large  subject, 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


59 


which  we  pass  over  here.  Sufficient,  that  there 
are  at  least,  as  sorted  by  the  foreign  rag  mer- 
chants, five  different  qualities,  and  that  in  the 
mills  a  still  more  careful  discrimination  is  desir- 
able. Says  Tomlinson,  a  high  English  authority  : 
"  If  rags  of  different  qualities  were  ground  at  the 
same  engine  the  finest  and  best  parts  would  be 
ground  and  carried  off  before  the  coarser  were 
sufficiently  reduced  to  make  a  pulp.  In  the  sort- 
ing of  rags  intended  for  the  manufacture  of  fine 
paper,  hems  and  seams  are  kept  apart,  and  coarse 
cloth  separated  from  fine.  Cloth  made  of  tow 
must  be  separated  from  that  made  of  linen,  cloth 
of  hemp  from  cloth  of  flax.  Even  the  degree  of 
wear  should  be  attended  to,  for  if  rags  compara- 
tively new  are  mixed  with  those  much  worn,  the 
one  will  be  reduced  to  a  good  pulp  while  the  other 
is  so  completely  ground  up  as  to  pass  through 
the  hair  strainers,  thus  occasioning,  not  only  loss 
of  material,  but  loss  of  beauty  in  the  paper ;  for 
the  smooth,  velvet  softness  in  some  papers  may 
be  produced  by  the  finer  particles  thus  carried 
off.  The  pulp  produced  from  imperfectly  as- 
sorted rags  has  a  cloudy  appearance,  in  conse- 
quence of  some  parts  being  less  reduced  than 


6o 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


others,  and  the  paper  made  from  it  is  also  cloudy, 
or  thicker  in  some  parts  than  others,  as  is  evident 
on  holding  a  sheet  up  before  the  light  When  it 
is  necessary  to  mix  different  qualities  of  rags  in 
order  to  produce  different  qualities  of  paper,  the 
rags  should  be  ground  separately  and  the  various 
pulps  mixed  afterwards." 

At  what  time  these  refinements  in  the  manu- 
facture were  severally  introduced  does  not  ap- 
pear ;  they  seem  to  be  the  result  of  the  experience 
of  practical  workers,  like  Whatman ;  a  natural 
and  gradual  growth,  unmarked  by  sudden  transi- 
tions. The  sorting  at  the  mill  is  done  by  women 
and  children.  Each  sorter  stands  before  a  table 
frame  covered  at  the  top  with  wire  cloth  of  about 
nine  meshes  to  the  square  inch.  To  the  frame  a 
long  steel  blade  is  attached  in  a  standing  posi- 
tion, and  the  sorter  shreds  the  rags  by  drawing 
them  across  the  edge.  Sometimes  the  seams  and 
edges  are  cut  out  and  sorted  by  themselves,  and 
sometimes  they  are  ripped  open  with  a  sharp, 
small  knife.  The  long  knife  attached  to  the 
frame  was  formerly,  and  is  sometimes  still  in 
American  mills,  the  ends  of  broken  scythes.  A 
great  deal  of  dust  shaken  out  in  this  operation 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


6l 


falls  through  the  wire  cloth  into  a  receptacle  be- 
low. The  rags,  as  they  are  cut  and  sorted,  are 
thrown  into  compartments  surrounding  the  table 
and  specially  assigned  to  each  class. 

In  many  cases,  after  unpacking  bales  of  rags  it 
is  necessary  to  partially  cleanse  them  in  a  duster ; 
that  is  a  rapidly  revolving  cylinder  covered  with 
wire  netting  and  enclosed  in  a  tight  box.  Much 
dust,  which  might  otherwise  vitiate  the  air  of  the 
sorting  room,  is  thus  thrown  out.  The  "  stamp- 
ing "  method  of  pulping  rags,  of  which  mention 
has  been  made,  prevailed  before  the  use  of  the 
duster  and  when  there  was  scant  sorting  of  the 
ragr.  It  was  then  the  practice  to  pile  the  rags  in 
large  stone  vats  and  leave  them  a  month  or  six 
weeks,  with  frequent  stirring  and  a  constant  sup- 
ply of  water,  to  rot  or  ferment  until  the  fiber  be- 
came sufficiently  loose  to  be  reduced  to  pulp  by 
pounding  with  stampers  in  wooden  mortars.  A 
writer  cotemporary  with  this  method  thus  de- 
scribes the  further  process  : 

"  These  mortars  are  cut  out  in  a  block  of  heart  of  oak,  well 
seasoned,  the  cavity  being  of  an  oval  figure  about  eighteen  inches 
broad,  thirty  inches  long  and  eighteen  or  twenty  deep,  the  bottom 
concave  and  lined  with  an  iron  plate  an  inch  thick,  eight  inches 


62 


PAPER  :  ITS  GENESIS 


broad  and  thirty  long,  shaped  inward  like  a  mould  for  a  salmon, 
with  the  head  and  tail  rounded.  In  the  middle  of  the  mortar  is  a 
cavity,  beneath  the  plate,  and  four  or  five  grooves  are  cut,  forming 
channels  which  lead  to  a  hole  cut  from  the  bottom  of  the  cavity 
quite  through  the  block;  it  is  covered  by  a  piece  of  hair  sieve  fas- 
tened to  the  inside.  This  plate  is  grooved  to  make  teeth,  on  which 
the  teeth  of  the  hammers  act,  to  cut  the  rags  in  pieces.  The  use 
of  the  hair  sieve  is  to  prevent  anything  going  out  except  the  foul 
water.  Two  hammers  work  side  by  side  in  each  mortar,  and  are 
lifted  alternately  by  the  mill.  They  are  sometimes  made,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  stampers  of  an  oil  mill,  to  lift  perpendicularly. 
In  other  mills  they  are  large  hammers  moving  on  a  center,  like  a 
fulling  mill,  and  lifted  by  cogs  upon  the  mill  shaft  in  the  same  man- 
ner. The  mortars  are  kept  constantly  supplied  with  fair  water  by 
little  troughs,  leading  from  a  cistern  which  is  kept  full  by  small 
buckets  affixed  to  the  floats  of  the  water  wheel ;  these  when  they 
have  raised  the  water  to  the  top  pour  it  into  the  cistern  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  Persian  wheel." 

This  was  an  ingenious  contrivance,  as  will  be 
seen,  and  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  primitive 
method  of  hand-beating  with  mallets  or  stones ; 
but  its  operation  was  tedious,  and  the  result  not 
perfect.  It  was  easily  superseded  by  an  invention 
made  in  Holland  about  the  year  1759,  and  hence 
called  the  "  Dutch  Engine,"  but  of  late  more  com- 
monly simply  "  The  Rag  Engine."  Essentially 
there  are  two  engines  arranged  in  pairs  upon  dif- 
ferent levels,  the  bottom  of  one  being  higher  than 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


63 


the  top  of  the  other,  so  that  the  contents  of  the 
higher  may  be  let  off  into  the  lower ;  the  stuff 
partially  pulped  in  one  becoming  completely  so 
in  the  other.  Knight's  American  Mechanical 
Dictionary  describes  them  as  follows  : 

"  The  two  are  alike  in  general  construction,  consisting  of  an  ob- 
long trough  with  semi-circular  ends.  They  are  made  of  wood  lined 
with  lead,  or  may  be  entirely  of  cast-iron.  The  trough  is  divided 
by  a  longitudinal  partition,  on  one  side  of  which  is  journaled  a  re- 
volving cylinder  provided  with  teeth.  This  cylinder  is  capable  of 
being  raised  or  lowered,  and  works  against  a  block  fixed  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  trough,  which  is  also  provided  with  cutters  cor- 
responding to  those  of  the  cylinder. 

The  first,  or  upper  machine,  is  termed  the  Washer,  as  into  it 
the  rags,  after  being  boiled  in  lye,  are  introduced.  A  current  of 
water  is  allowed  to  flow  through  the  trough,  and  the  roller,  in  its 
elevated  position,  is  set  in  motion,  which  thoroughly  washes  and 
cleanses  the  rags.  The  roller  is  then  lowered  in  its  bearings  and 
the  speed  of  rotation  increased,  causing  a  constant  current  circu- 
larly around  the  trough,  carrying  the  pulp  between  the  roller  and 
the  block  until  it  is  reduced  to  what  is  technically  known  as  'half 
stuff.'  This  is  then  transferred  to  the  second  engine,  known  as 
the  beater.  During  this  part  of  the  process  the  bleaching  material 
is  added.  The  Beater,  or  Pulping  Engine,  is  precisely  similar  to 
the  washer,  except  that  its  roller  and  block  are  provided  with  a 
large  number  of  cutters,  and  it  is  driven  at  higher  speed.  *  *  * 
*  The  pulp  in  its  finished  condition  is  called  'whole  stuff]  and  is 
run  into  a  reservoir  whence  it  is  taken  out  as  it  is  wanted  to  sup- 
ply the  vats." 

The  rag  engine  is  still  in  use,  with  some  im- 


64 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


provements,  but  substantially  of  the  same  con- 
struction.  At  first,  in  Holland,  it  was  driven  by 
wind-mills;  in  England  and  America  chiefly  by 
water  power.  Of  course  steam  is  now  largely 
employed. 

After  the  rags  had  been  cut  and  beaten  into 
whole  stuff,  all  the  other  processes  of  the  manu- 
facture were  performed  by  hand,  until  about  the 
opening  of  the  present  century  ;  the  method  being 
that  described  below : 

"  The  '  whole  stuff,'  now  often  called  the  '  beaten  pulp,'  prepared 
in  the  engine,  is  run  out  by  pipes  into  the  stuff  chest,  where,  if 
there  are  different  kinds,  they  are  mixed.  It  is  then  transferred 
to  vats  or  tubs,  each  of  about  five  feet  in  diameter  and  two  and  a 
half  feet  deep,  provided  at  the  top  with  planks  inclined  inward  to 
prevent  slopping  during  the  moulding.  In  the  Old  Berkshire  mill, 
and  doubtless  in  others  in  America,  these  vats  were  square  and 
smaller  at  the  bottom  than  at  the  top. 

The  paper  is  made  into  sheets  by  means  of  the  mould  and  the 
deckle.  The  mould  is  a  shallow  box,  or  frame,  firmly  made  of  ma- 
hogany, of  which  the  top  is  covered  with  a  wire  cloth  or  screen, 
varying  in  fineness  with  the  paper  to  be  made.  It  consists  of 
wires  tightly  stretched  across  the  frame  and  crossed  at  right  angles 
by  a  few  stronger  wires  bound  to  the  smaller  at  the  points  of  inter- 
section by  a  still  finer  wire.  In  several  kinds  of  paper  the  marks 
of  the  mould  are  apparent,  the  fabric  being  thinner  where  the  pulp 
comes  in  contact  with  the  protuberances.  It  is  on  the  same 
principle  that  what,  by  a  misnomer,  is  called  the  water-mark,  is 
produced,  fine  wires  bent  in  the  desired  form  being  sewed  to  the 


AND  ITS  RE  VELA  TIONS. 


65 


surface  of  the  mould,  and  leaving  their  impression  upon  the  sheet. 

The  paper  moulded  upon  the  kind  of  wire  cloth  described  above 
is  known  as  laid.  A  species  of  it,  or  an  imitation  made  by  ma- 
chinery, has  since  been  highly  esteemed  by  connoisseurs  as  a  writ- 
ing paper,  but  the  roughness  it  exhibited  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  rendered  it  objectionable  for  that  purpose,  and 
still  more  so  for  printing;  which  led  to  the  invention  in  England, 
about  the  year  1750,  of  wove  paper;  the  wire  cloth  of  the  mould, 
not  the  paper,  being  woven.  The  result  was  a  perfectly  smooth 
sheet. 

The  deckle  is  a  thin,  flat  frame  of  mahogany,  bound  at  its  cor- 
ners with  brass,  corresponding  in  its  outer  dimensions  to  the  size  of 
the  mould  and  in  its  inner  to  that  of  the  sheet  to  be  moulded.  Its 
office  is  to  retain  the  pulp  upon  the  wire  cloth,  and  it  must  be  so 
evenly  made  that  it  will  lie  flat  upon  it,  or  the  edges  of  the  paper 
will  be  badly  finished.  When  the  deckle  is  in  place  it  forms,  with 
the  mould,  a  shallow  sieve,  not  fastened  together,  but  held  in  place 
by  the  two  strong  hands  of  the  dipper,  a  skilled  workman,  who 
takes  up  in  it  so  much  pulp  suspended  in  water  as  his  experience 
tells  him  is  sufficient  for  a  sheet  of  paper.  This  he  shakes  gently 
until  the  water  is  drained  off  and  the  pulp  spread  evenly  upon  the 
wire,  in  the  form  of  a  sheet.  He  then  removes  the  deckle,  and 
shoves  the  mould  along  a  board  placed  for  that  purpose  on  the  top 
of  the  vat,  to  the  concher,  another  workman,  who,  with  great  skill 
and  care,  gradually  inclines  the  mould  to  a  piece  of  felt  or  woolen 
cloth  laid  flat  to  receive  the  still  soft  sheet  of  pulp  which  he  gently 
deposits  upon  it,  and  returns  the  mould  to  the  dipper  to  be  again 
used.  By  constant  practice  the  two  become  so  dextrous  as  to  re- 
peat this  delicate  operation  with  great  rapidity,  considering  its 
nature,  although  of  course  not  to  be  compared  with  the  speed  of 
modern  machine  work.  The  dipper  thus  continues  to  lay  alter- 
nately a  sheet  and  a  felt  until  a  post — that  is,  six  quires — are  piled 


66 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


up;  the  felt  absorbing  a  portion  of  the  moisture  which  remains, 
and  preventing  the  sheets  from  adhering  to  each  other  as  they 
would  in  their  raw  state  if  not  separated.  When  a  post  is  com- 
pleted it  is  put  in  a  screw  press,  which  forces  out  a  large  quantity 
of  water,  hardens  and  consolidates  the  paper,  and,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, smooths  the  swells  and  hollows  caused  in  the  laid  paper  by 
the  wires.  When  a  second  post  is  ready,  the  first  is  taken  out  of 
the  screw  press  by  the  lifter,  a  third  skilled  workman,  who  makes 
them  up  into  a  compact  pile  without  felts.  When  several  of  these 
piles  are  ready  they  are  put  into  what  is  called  the  wet  press,  and, 
under  heavy  pressure,  a  great  deal  of  moisture  is  again  expressed, 
the  sheets  gain  stronger  consistency  by  the  closer  interlacing  of 
the  fibers,  and  the  felt  marks  are  obliterated.  After  being  removed 
from  this  press,  the  sheets,  in  parcels  of  seven  or  eight,  are  hung 
to  dry  upon  peculiarly  arranged  racks.  When  sufficiently  dry  the 
paper  is  taken  down,  sleeked,  dressed,  and  shaken  to  separate  the 
sheets  and  get  rid  of  the  dust.  Next  comes  the  sizing — the  size 
being  made  from  the  shreds  and  parings  of  raw  hide  and  parch- 
ment, the  liquid  product  of  which  is  nicely  clarified  and  receives  a 
small  modicum  of  alum.  Into  this  the  sheets  are  dipped  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  expose  both  surfaces.  The  sheets  are  then  piled  up, 
with  thin  boards  interposed  at  intervals  to  keep  them  steady,  and 
are  again  subjected  to  pressure  in  order  to  get  rid  of  any  super- 
fluous size.  In  this  and  preceding  pressings  the  force  must  be  ap- 
plied very  gradually  and  with  great  care,  so  as  to  permit  any  bub- 
bles of  air  caught  between  the  sheets  to  escape  without  injury  to 
the  paper.  The  paper  is  then  transferred  to  lofts,  and  in  parcels 
of  two,  three,  or  even  more  sheets,  hung  up  to  dry,  care  being 
taken  to  regulate  the  temperatuie  and  the  admission  of  air.  After 
hanging  three  or  four  days,  it  is  taken  down  and  carried  to  a  build- 
ing called  a  saul,  from  the  French  salle,  or  the  German  saa/,  a 
hall,  where  it  is  examined,  finished,  and  again  pressed.    The  press 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


67 


used  is  of  extreme  power,  and  paste-board  very  smooth  and  hard  is 
placed  between  the  sheets  in  making  writing  paper;  answering  to 
our  calendering  process.  The  best  quality  of  paper  was  hot- 
pressed  ;  that  is,  between  every  fifty  sheets  of  paste-board  a  plate 
of  heated  iron  was  interposed.  The  last  pressing  is  repeated 
several  times,  the  sheets  being  as  often  turned,  so  that  the  smooth- 
ing may  be  uniform.  The  paper  is  then  made  into  quires  and 
reams,  trimmed,  and  once  more  pressed." 

The  above  description,  which  is  chiefly  con- 
densed from  Tomlinson,  is  that  of  paper-making 
by  hand  in  England  at  a  comparatively  recent 
date.  The  earlier  manufacture  both  there  and  in 
America,  was,  however,  very  nearly  the  same, 
with  inferior  mechanical  appliances,  especially  in 
the  matter  of  presses.  In  the  Old  Berkshire  mill, 
the  first  in  western  Massachusetts,  the  common 
screw  press  was  used  for  many  years,  the  power 
being  applied  by  a  lever  made  of  a  bar  of  stout 
wood,  sometimes  twenty  feet  long.  A  workman 
in  the  mill  at  the  time,  now  a  gentleman  in  high 
standing  in  the  community,  tells  us  that  he  has 
often  seen  these  levers  splintered  by  the  workmen 
in  their  efforts  to  secure  an  effectual  pressure. 

The  engineer,  vat-man  (or  dipper)  and  coucher 
performed  the  same  work,  substantially  in  the 
same  manner,  as  in  the  English  mills.    But,  in- 


68 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


stead  of  the  lifter,  the  lay-boy  took  the  sheets 
from  the  felts  and  laid  them  in  piles,  an  operation 
which  required  some  dexterity ;  and  the  subse- 
quent processes  of  pressing,  sizing,  trimming  and 
folding  were  done  by  such  work  people  as  were 
competent  and  could  be  spared  from  other  work, 
under  the  direction  of  the  overseer  or  engineer. 
The  lay-boy  held  a  good  deal  such  a  position  as 
that  of  the  devil  in  a  printing  office.  When  he 
was  not  engaged  in  his  special  duty  he  was  kept 
busy  in  tending  upon  the  workmen,  and  on  all 
sorts  of  errands,  the  most  frequent  being  to 
Holden's  tavern,  to  which  he  was  constantly  des- 
patched for  bottles  of  rum  or  some  other  liquor, 
for  which  he  was  rewarded  with  a  liberal  glass 
upon  his  return.  The  gentleman  who  tells  us 
this  from  his  own  experience  wonders  that  this 
practice  did  not  make  him  a  drunkard.  Before 
he  was  fourteen  years  old  he  had,  by  it,  acquired 
a  love  for  ardent  spirits,  which  he  still  retains, 
although  for  over  forty  years  he  has  tasted  none. 

The  reader  will  observe  passim  the  large  num- 
ber of  workmen  employed  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  product  as  compared  with  the  modern 
machine  manufacture,  and  also  the  low  wages  of 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


69 


labor.  A  considerable  number  of  the  skilled 
workmen  employed,  probably  twenty-five  or  thirty 
during  the  first  thirty  years,  were  Englishmen. 

A  matter  of  some  interest  belonging  to  the 
era  of  the  hand  manufacture  is  the  derivation  of 
the  names  of  certain  classes  of  paper  from  curious 
water-marks  of  the  old  makers.  One  of  the  old- 
est— as  far  back  as  1539 — consisted  of  a  hand 
pointing  to  a  star ;  whence  came  the  name  of 
"  hand  paper."  A  favorite  mark  about  the  same 
time  was  a  jug  or  pot,  and  so  came  u  pot  paper." 
When  the  Puritans  had  succeeded  in  overthrow- 
ing the  royal  government  and  establishing  the 
English  Commonwealth,  they  substituted  for  the 
royal  arms,  which  had  before  distinguished  a  cer- 
tain class  of  paper,  a  fool's  cap  and  bells,  and 
f-rom  that  piece  of  grim  ridicule  the  "  foolscap  " 
sheet  took  its  name.  A  postman's  horn  indented 
upon  another  size  made  it  "  post,"  and  with  the 
addition  of  the  city  where  it  was  first  made, 
"  Bath  post." 


7° 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


PART  III. 


The  Manufacture  of  Paper  by  Machinery — The 
Manufacture  of  Paper  by  Hand. 

Great  as  the  advance  had  been  from  primitive 
methods,  paper-making  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century  was  still  a  tedious,  difficult,  and  therefore 
costly,  operation.  But  if  there  was  among  manu- 
facturers any  longing  for  improvement  by  means 
of  machinery,  it  was  far  from  hopeful.  They 
seem  to  have  been  resigned  to  the  separate 
moulding  and  finishing  of  each  sheet  by  hand, 
although  it  required  much  time,  as  well  as  extra- 
ordinary care  and  skill  in  each  workman  from  en- 
gineer to  lay-boy.  And  yet  the  first  and  most 
important  step  had  been  taken  towards  the  inven- 
tion of  a  machine  by  whose  aid,  chiefly,  the  proc- 
ess has  been  rendered  so  nearly  automatic  as  to 
require  comparatively  little  care  and  skill  on  the 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


71 


part  of  subordinate  workmen,  and  so  hastened 
that  rags  received  at  the  mill  on  one  day  may  be 
turned  out  the  next  day  as  paper,  instead  of  re- 
quiring three  months  as  formerly  ;  while,  although 
the  machine  is  itself  very  expensive,  the  cost  of 
the  product  is  reduced  fully  one-half.  An  Eng- 
lish writer,  speaking  of  what  is  accomplished  by 
this  machine  in  mills  known  to  him,  says  :  "  In 
the  brief  space  of  three  minutes,  and  in  the  short 
distance  of  thirty  or  forty  feet,  a  continuous 
stream  of  fluid  pulp  is  made  into  paper,  dried, 
polished  and  cut  into  sheets.  The  paper  thus 
produced  is  moderate  in  price,  and  for  many  pur- 
poses superior  to  that  made  by  hand.  It  is  of 
uniform  thickness,  and  can  be  fabricated  of  any 
desirable  dimensions.  It  does  not  require  to  be 
sorted,  trimmed  or  hung  up  in  the  dry-house — 
operations  which  in  the  hand  manufacture  led  to 
defects  in  about  one  sheet  out  of  every  five." 

This  extreme  speed,  however,  is  not  usual,  nor 
indeed  is  the  manufacture  from  the  rags  in  one 
day  very  common,  although  in  case  of  necessity 
in  book  and  newspaper  it  is  not  infrequently 
done.  In  the  English  mills  the  same  may  be 
true  of  writing  paper,  which  is  there  completely 


72 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


finished  by  machinery.  The  best  American  writ- 
ing papers — known  as  loft  dried — after  being 
sized,  dried,  and  cut  into  sheets,  are  taken  from 
the  racks  hung  in  lofts  for  complete  drying  and 
finished  by  hand,  with  the  aid  of  powerful  calen- 
dering presses.  But  even  these,  if  need  be,  can 
be  finished  in  five  days  from  the  rags. 

The  early  history  of  the  machine  by  which  the 
achievements  specified  by  the  English  writer  are 
accomplished — and  which  we  now  call  the  Four- 
drinier  Paper  Machine — is  a  noble  one  in  itself, 
but  sad  as  regards  the  men  to  whom  the  world  is 
indebted  for  it — literally  indebted  ;  for,  except  in 
pitifully  scant  honors  to  their  names,  small  part 
of  the  debt  has  ever  been  cancelled.  Most  of 
them  died  in  poverty,  to  which  they  were  reduced 
from  affluence  by  their  expenditures  in  this  be- 
half ;  and  in  biographical  dictionaries  which  care- 
fully preserve  the  memories  of  petty  politicians, 
obscure  divines  and  the  like  class  of  "  notables," 
we  look  in  vain  for  the  names  of  Robert,  Gamble, 
Fourdrinier  and  Donkin. 

It  was  in  the  year  1798,  when  the  throes  of 
the  French  Revolution  were  beginning  to  subside 
under  the  rule  of  Napoleon,  that  Louis  Robert, 


Prepared  by  J.  E.  A.  SMITH, 

And  originally  published  in  the  pages  of  The  Paper  World. 


A  Sixteenth  Century  Paper  Mill. 


IN  THREE  PARTS. 


PART  I.  Connection  between  the  Invention  of  Printing  and 
Paper  —  Reasons  for  the  long  delay  of  both — Ar- 
ticles USED  IN  THE  PLACE  OF  MODERN  PAPER  BEFORE 
ITS  INVENTION. 

PART  II.  The  Second  Era  of  Paper-Making — Hand-Made  Pa- 
per from  Vegetable  Pulp. 


PART  III.  The  Manufacture  of  Paper  by  Machinery — The 
Manufacture  of  Paper  by  Hand. 


PART  I. 


Connection  between  the  Invention  of  Printing  and 
Paper — Reason  for  the  long  delay  of  both 
— A  r tides  used  in  the  place  of  Moder?i 
Paper  before  its  Iitvention. 

A PHILOSOPHICAL  historian  maintains 
that  the  failure  of  the  civilized  and  highly 
cultivated  nations  of  antiquity  to  invent  the  art 
of  Printing  was  due  to  the  lack  of  a  cheap, 
light  and  durable  material  to  receive  and  preserve 
the  impression  of  the  types  ;  and,  in  support  of 
his  proposition,  he  reminds  us  of  the  near  and 
suggestive  approach  to  such  a  discovery  which 
was  constantly  before  the  eyes  of  Egyptians, 
Greeks  and  Romans  in  the  use  of  seals.  Since 
this  proposition  was  made,  some  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago,  Oriental  investigation  has  found,  an- 
tedating even  Egyptian  civilization,  on  the  in- 
scribed bricks  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  long 
histories  actually  printed,  although  the  impression 
was  embossed  by  moulds  instead  of  being  colored 
by  ink.  It  was,  nevertheless,  just  as  much  print- 
ing as  the  books  which  are  now  prepared  for  the 
use  of   the  blind.    In  often-recurring  phrases, 


r 


<s 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


such  as  the  styles  of  the  kings,  the  inscriptions 
were  doubtless  made  by  stereotyped  moulds,  but 
the  cuneiform  printers  upon  bricks  evidently  had 
movable  types,  although  there  is  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  they  learned  to  compose  them  in 
"  forms."  Each  separate  character,  except  in  the 
case  before  mentioned,  was  probably  inscribed  by 
a  mould  or  type  provided  with  a  handle,  by  which 
it  was  deftly  taken  from  a  set,  which  answered  the 
purpose  of  a  modern  printer's  case,  and,  after 
using,  as  deftly  replaced,  requiring  no  further 
"distribution"  before  it  was  again  called  for. 
Artists  in  all  such  work  acquire  a  dexterity  which 
results  in  wonderful  rapidity  of  execution,  al- 
though, of  course,  immeasurably  short  of  such 
marvels  as  are  accomplished  by  our  modern  ma- 
chine printing.  The  motions  of  the  printers  or 
stampers  who  moulded  the  old  inscribed  bricks 
may  be  supposed  to  have  been  similar  to  those  of 
the  musical  Swiss  Bell  Ringers  of  our  time, 
although  much  more  rapid,  as  no  rhythmic  move- 
ment was  required. 

A  still  nearer  approach  to  printing  in  the 
modern  sense  is  found  in  the  figures  and  hiero- 
glyphics inscribed,  with  heated  metal  brands,  by 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


9 


way  of  epitaph,  upon  bands  of  red  leather  bound 
around  the  foreheads  of  some  of  the  Egyptian 
mummies. 

It  may  be  added  to  these  suggestive  approaches 
to  the  invention  of  printing,  that  the  ancients 
had,  besides  the  flowing  ink  used  with  a  reed  or 
quill  pen,  another  which  was  applied  with  a  stiff 
brush,  and  must  have  been  a  near  approach  to 
printing  ink,  even  if  it  could  not  have  been 
actually  used  as  such.  Pliny  rudely  describes  it 
as  made,  in  various  ways,  from  soot,  by  mixing  it 
with  burnt  pitch  and  resins;  "  for  which  purpose," 
he  says,  "  furnaces  have  been  built  which  do  not 
permit  the  escape  of  the  smoke.  The  best  made 
in  this  way  is  from  pine  wood."  Soot,  obtained 
in  this  manner,  and  resinous  oils,  are  certainly 
suggestive  of  lamp  and  ivory  black,  resin  and 
vegetable  oils ;  the  chief  ingredients  of  modern 
printing  ink. 

But,  admitting  this  suggestive  approach  to  the 
invention  of  printing — and,  as  we  have  shown  it, 
in  closer  approximation  than  the  author  alluded 
to  claims — and  granting  also  that  the  existence 
of  such  a  paper  as  we  now  possess  would  have 
hastened  the  advent  of  that  art  by  centuries,  still 


IO 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


it  does  not,  of  necessity,  follow,  that  its  non-exist- 
ence was  the  prime  or  chief  cause  which,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  kept  hidden  from  the  world  that 
which  is  not  only  "  the  art  preservative  of  all  arts," 
but  the  indispensable  medium  of  that  new  life 
which,  since  its  discovery,  has  everywhere  been 
the  inspirer  of  mechanical  invention,  not  less 
than  of  other  grand  results  of  thought. 

We  shall  find  presently  that  the  prepared 
papyrus  of  the  Egyptians  was  even  more  strictly 
a  true  paper  than  the  moulded  bricks  of  Babylon 
and  Nineveh  were  true  printing.  The  real  reason 
why  the  world  remained  so  many  thousand  years 
upon  the  very  verge  of  two  great  discoveries  with- 
out ever  crossing  it,  was  that  absorption  of  the 
mental  energy  of  the  nations  of  antiquity  in  other 
directions,  which  left  their  inventive  genius  in  a 
strangely  dormant  condition.  Those  nations  had 
artists  of  wonderful  genius  and  mechanics  of  ad- 
mirable skill ;  but,  as  compared  with  those  of 
modern  civilization,  no  great  machinists.  They 
were  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  mechanics,  and, 
for  some  purpose — as  in  the  raising  of  ponderous 
stones — employed  them  with  stupendous  effect. 
They  had  a  marvelous  dexterity  in  the  use  of 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


artists'  and  artisans'  tools  ;  but,  if  they  ever  com- 
bined that  knowledge  and  that  skill  for  such  pur- 
poses as  modern  inventors  and  machinists  combine 
them,  it  was  with  small  result  as  compared  with 
the  simplest  modern  machinery.  Having  devised 
a  moderately  satisfactory  machine — such,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  hand-loom  of  seventy-five  years  ago 
may  represent — they  were  content  therewith. 
After  that,  their  highest  ambition  was  to  acquire 
a  facile  use  of  it,  and,'  at  the  utmost,  to  get  the 
best  possible  work  out  of  it  by  manual  dexterity, 
without  any  restless  endeavor  to  improve  the  ma- 
chine itself.  And  this  inactivity  in  mechanic  in- 
vention— this  primitive  lethargy  of  inventive 
genius — was  not  confined  to  the  nations  of  antiq- 
uity, but  continued  throughout  the  middle  ages, 
and,  to  a  certain  degree,  even  long  after  the  in- 
troduction of  the  paper  manufacture  and  the  in- 
vention of  the  printing  press.  From  so  protracted 
a  slumber  the  awakening  was  naturally  slow  and 
gradual.  The  new  philosophy  which  had  birth  in 
the  sixteenth  century  hastened  it.  The  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  witnessed  grand 
and  fundamental  discoveries  and  inventions. 
But  the  era  in  which  we  now  live  can  hardly  be 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


said  to  have  commenced  prior  to  the  year  1880. 
Grand  as  many  inventions  previous  to  that  date 
were,  they  did  not  clearly  even  prophesy  that 
almost  bewildering  multiplication  of  automatic 
machinery  which  genius  has  within  the  last  eighty 
years  endowed  with  a  skill — or  at  least  with  a 
precision,  delicacy,  rapidity  and  certainty  of  exe- 
cution— never  attained  by  intelligent  agents. 
The  powers  of  machinery,  of  which  previous 
ages  laid  the  sure  foundation,  have  been  carried 
by  ours  to  an  exquisite  perfection  of  which  they 
never  dreamed;  and  that  with  a  celerity  of  prog- 
ress compared  with  which  all  previous  advance 
was  but  stagnation. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  the  truths  which  we  have 
thus  briefly  stated  that  we  must  read  the  history 
of  the  paper  manufacture.  And,  in  order  fully  to 
comprehend  its  worth  to  the  world,  we  must  also 
first  consider  the  imperfection  of  the  materials 
which,  before  its  invention,  filled  its  place,  and 
the  costly,  wearisome  and  cumbrous  processes  of 
their  manufacture. 

Probably  the  first  purpose  for  which  a  substi- 
tute for  paper  was  required  was  the  transmission 
of  simple  messages  ;  and  any  tolerably  smooth 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


13 


and  light  substance  which  came  to  hand  was  suf- 
ficient to  receive  the  rude  figures  or  hieroglyphics 
which  told  the  story  or  helped  the  messenger  to 
tell  it.  The  smooth  bark  or  the  broad  leaves  of 
certain  trees  were  generally  most  available.  The 
white  birch  of  the  American  forests  would  have 
been  a  favorite  ;  and  it  has  often  been  used  by 
both  the  early  settlers  and  the  aborigines  as  a 
substitute  for  paper  in  cases  of  necessity,*  As 
the  wants  of  civilization  advanced,  the  different 
parts  of  the  tree  were  employed  for  a  time  more 
generally  than  any  other  materials  ;  the  leaves  be- 
ing strung  upon  threads  for  preservation,  the 
outer  and  inner  bark  made  smooth  and  so  pliant 
as  to  be  rolled,  and  the  wood  cut  into  thin  boards, 
and  sometimes  covered  with  a  coating  of  wax. 
Thin  sheets  of  metal  or  of  ivory,  leather,  painted 
cloth,  stones,  brick,  and  every  similar  material 
known  to  that  day  were  also  used. 

Upon  this  continent  the  Aztecs,  who  attained 
to  a  system  of  hieroglyphical  writing,  although 
far  inferior  to  that  of  the  Egyptians,  had  for  their 
manuscripts,  according  to  Prescott,  cotton  cloth 
and  skins  nicely  prepared,  and  also  "  a  composi- 

*An  ingenious  publisher  on  the  White  Mountains  printed  a  newspaper  upon  birch  bark 
in  the  year  18S0. 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


tion  of  silk  and  gum  ;  "  sized  silk,  as  we  should 
say.  But  "  for  the  most  part  they  used  a  fine 
fabric  from  the  leaves  of  the  aloe,  agave  Ameri- 
cana, called  by  them  magueys,  which  grows  lux- 
uriantly over  all  the  table-lands  of  Mexico."  "  A 
sort  of  paper,"  continues  Mr.  Prescott,  "  was  made 
from  it,  resembling  somewhat  the  Egyptian 
papyrus,  which,  when  properly  dressed  and  pol- 
ished, is  said  to  have  been  more  soft  and  beauti- 
ful than  parchment.  Some  of  the  specimens 
exhibit  their  original  freshness,  and  the  paintings 
on  them  retain  their  brilliancy  of  colors.  They 
were  sometimes  done  up  in  rolls,  but  more  fre- 
quently into  volumes,  of  moderate  size,  in  which 
the  paper  was  shut  up  like  a  folding  screen,  with 
a  tablet  of  wood  at  each  extremity,  that  gave  the 
whole,  when  closed,  the  appearance  of  a  book. 
The  length  of  the  strips  was  determined  only  by 
convenience.  As  the  pages  might  be  read  and 
referred  to  separately,  this  form  had  obvious  ad- 
vantages over  the  rolls  of  the  ancients."  We 
have  seen  Oriental  manuscripts  of  a  quite  recent 
date  folded  in  the  method  thus  described. 

The  ancient  Peruvians,  who  thought  the  annals 
of  their  empire  of  sufficient  importance  to  require 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


a  corps  of  keepers,  had  no  better  aid  to  show  in 
the  place  of  paper  than  the  quipu — a  cord  about 
two  feet  long  composed  of  different  colored  threads 
tightly  twisted  together,  from  which  a  quantity  of 
smaller  threads  were  suspended  in  the  manner  of 
fringe.  The  threads  were  tied  in  knots,  and,  by 
their  arrangement,  indicated  not  only  sensible  ob- 
jects, but  abstract  ideas.  But  the  quipus  were 
chiefly  used  for  arithmetical  purposes,  which 
they  seem  to  have  answered  very  well. 

Still  papyrus  and  parchment  were  the  two  ma- 
terials which  chiefly  supplied  the  place  of  paper 
in  the  civilized  nations  of  antiquity  when  they 
came  to  have  an  extended  literature  and  large 
public  and  private  libraries,  as  well  as  to  require, 
as  we  now  do,  immense  quantities  for  the  ordi- 
nary transactions  of  social,  official  and  business 
life.  And  these  two  articles  came  to  be  great 
staples  in  the  commerce  of  the  world ;  Egypt 
holding  a  close  monopoly  both  in  the  manufact- 
ure of  the  papyrus  and  in  the  production  of  the 
raw  material,  which  must  have  been  very  lucra- 
tive indeed. 

Papyrus  is  the  Latinized  Greek  name  of  a 
plant  called  by  the  Egyptians  Bublos,  whence 


r 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


came  the  Greek  Biblion,  paper,  and,  in  a  final 
sense,  a  book,  and  thence  our  name  for  the  Holy 
Scriptures  as  the  Book  of  books.  It  grows  in 
swamps,  to  the  height  of  ten  feet.  It  was  found 
chiefly  in  the  overflowed  lands  of  the  river  Nile 
and  the  neighboring  marshes  ;  but  there,  in  the 
days  of  Egypt's  prosperity,  it  grew  in  immense 
abundance,  being  doubtless  carefully  cultivated 
and  protected.  It  has  now  become  rare,  fulfilling 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  :  "The  paper  reeds  by  the 
brooks,  and  everything  sown  by  the  brooks,  shall 
wither,  be  driven  away,  and  be  no  more."  The 
stalk  of  this  J)lant,  which  is  properly  styled  "  a 
reed,"  is  triangular  and  bare,  except  near  the  root, 
where  there  are  some  small  leaves.  The  top  is 
surmounted  by  a  bushy  head  of  long,  fibrous  foli- 
age, spreading  from  the  stalk  very  much  in  the 
shape  of  our  common  feather  dust-brush.  It  was 
cut  annually,  about  eighteen  inches  of  the  lower 
part  of  the  stalk  being  sold  for  edible  purposes, 
and  the  remainder  devoted  to  the  paper  manufact- 
ure. This  stalk  consists  of  twenty  pellicles,  or 
thin  folds,  varying  in  fineness  of  texture  from  the 
coarse  exterior  bark,  which  was  only  used  for 
cordage  and  other  purposes,  for  which  hemp  and 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


17 


similar  materials  are  now  employed,  to  the  coat- 
ing nearest  the  pith  where  the  most  delicate  fiber 
was  found. 

The  manufactured  papyrus  was  of  nine  distinct 
qualities,  governed  chiefly  by  the  selection  of  raw 
material  ;  and  it  is  quite  in  accordance  with 
modern  custom  that  each  was  designated  by  its 
own  peculiar  name,  as  "  Augusta,"  "  Liviana," 
"  Hieretica,"  etc.  The  last  named,  originally  the 
best,  was  reserved  for  religious  books  and  uses, 
but,  afterwards,  under  the  influence  of  Roman 
culture,  the  others  were  made  to  supply  its  lux- 
urious tastes.  The  coarsest  grades,  known  as 
the  "  Tamoretic  "  and  "  Emporetica,"  were  sold 
by  weight,  and  used  only  for  wrapping  paper. 
The  process  of  manufacture  was  not  complicated 
as  compared  either  with  its  results  or  with  the 
making  of  modern  paper.  Neither  machinery  or 
any  intelligent  application  of  chemical  science 
had  any  part  in  it.  It  was  purely  a  mechanical 
preparation  of  a  substance  wonderfully  adapted 
by  nature  to  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  needed. 

The  folds  in  the  tissue  of  the  stalk  were  first 
separated  by  an  instrument,  sometimes  called  ua 
needle,"  and  sometimes  "  a  sharp  stone."  The 


PAPER:  IPS  GENESIS 


latter  was  probably  used  at  an  early  period,  al- 
though we  find  the  same  term  applied,  as  late  as 
the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  before  our  era,  to 
the  knife  employed  in  the  preparation  of  bodies 
for  burial. 

A  layer  of  one  class  of  these  folds  was  then 
placed  upon  an  inclined  table  of  wood,  wet  with 
the  water  of  the  Nile,  and  the  rough  ends  cut 
straight.  Across  this  a  second  layer  was  laid  at 
right  angles,  and  sometimes  a  third  at  right  angles 
with  the  second.  During  the  reign  of  the  first 
Claudius  over  the  Roman  empire — A.  D.  41-54 
— a  great  improvement  in  the  fineness,  strength 
and  color  of  some  varieties  of  papyrus  paper  was 
made  by  putting  a  layer  of  the  most  delicate  folds 
over  the  coarser  but  stronger.  Where  the  folds 
were  imperfect  they  were  patched,  the  adhesive 
power  being  supplied  by  a  glutinous  substance 
which  the  Egyptians  believed  to  belong  to  the 
Nile  water,  but  which  actually  resided  in  the 
papyrus  leaf.  The  same  glutinous  quality  caused 
the  layers  to  adhere  when  they  were  subjected  to 
the  pressure  which  was  the  next  step  in  the  man- 
ufacture. After  which  they  were  dried  in  the 
sun.    A  firm,  hard  sheet  having  thus  been  ob- 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


19 


tained,  any  roughness  in  it  was  beaten  smooth 
with  mallets,  and  the  surface  polished  by  hand 
with  a  semi-cylinder  of  stone,  glass,  shell  or  ivory. 

The  width  of  the  papyrus  sheet  was  determined 
partly  by  convenience  and  partly  by  the  length 
of  the  papyrus  leaf  used ;  specimens  are  found 
varying  from  five  to  eighteen  inches  in  breadth. 
The  length  might  be  indefinitely  prolonged,  sheet 
being  added  to  sheet  by  the  aid  of  their  inhereift 
glutinous  property,  often  aided  by  paste  or  some 
species  of  glue.  There  seems  to  be  no  good 
reason  why  the  width  might  not  have  been  in- 
creased in  the  same  way,  had  it  been  desirable. 
When  finished,  the  papyrus  paper  was  rolled 
upon  a  wooden  cylinder,  the  ends  of  which  pro- 
jected, and  were  often  ornamentally  finished. 
The  longest  roll  yet  found  is  thirty  feet  long  and 
eleven  inches  wide. 

There  are  many  fabulous  accounts  of  the  first 
use  of  the  papyrus  as  a  writing  material,  as  we 
have  described  it ;  but  the  true  date  is  lost  in  the 
mists  of  the  earliest  antiquity.  In  some  form  it 
was  certainly  thus  used  as  early  as  2400  B.C. 
Specimens  are  still  preserved  fully  three  thousand 
years  old.    The  official  papers  of  those  extremely 


20 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


conservative  rulers,  the  Popes,  were  written  upon 
it  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century.  In  this  long  in- 
terval— 3500  years — between  2400  B.  C.  and 
1 100  A.  D.,  great  changes  took  place  in  the  mode 
of  manufacture — and  yet  by  no  means  so  great  in 
that  vast  period  as  the  paper  manufacture  has 
undergone  during  the  last  hundred  years.  In 
that  fact  we  have  a  measure  of  the  comparative 
rate  of  progress  in  mechanical  invention  in 
ancient  and  modern  times. 

An  interesting  point  in  the  history  of  papyrus 
paper  is  the  part  it  played  in  the  commerce  of  the 
world,  which  shows  both  the  large  quantities  man- 
ufactured and  the  culture  of  the  civilization  which 
demanded  it.  In  this  connection  it  is  a  sugges- 
tive fact  that  the  use  of  papyrus  increased  when 
the  Greeks  obtained  possession  of  Egypt,  and 
both  the  use  increased  and  the  quality  improved 
when  Roman  domination  succeeded  to  Greek. 
Its  palmiest  period  was  after  the  Christian  era, 
although  for  centuries,  as  well  before  as  after  the 
birth  of  Christ,  it  was  a  most  important  branch  of 
both  manufacture  and  commerce,  the  supply  be- 
ing always  less  than  the  demand.  In  the  year  15 
A.  D.,  a  popular  commotion  arose  in  Rome  on 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


account  of  the  scarcity  of  papyrus.  In  290  A. 
D.,  Firmus,  a  rich  merchant,  who  in  an  attempt 
to  reach  the  throne  of  the  Roman  empire  captured 
the  city  of  Alexandria,  boasted  that  among  its 
spoils  were  so  much  paper  and  size  that  its  value 
would  support  his  army.  Early  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury A.  D.,  Theodoric  the  Great  abolished  the  high 
tariff  upon  imported  papyrus,  and  Cassiodorus, 
a  man  of  letters  as  well  as  a  Roman  senator, 
wrote  a  letter  congratulating  the  world  on  the 
removal  of  a  tax  so  injurious  to  commerce  and  so 
unfavorable  to  the  progress  of  knowledge — a  tax 
upon  "an  article  essentially  necessary  to  the 
human  race  "  and  the  general  use  of  which  "  pol- 
ishes and  immortalizes  man." 

Memphis  seems  to  have  been  then,  and  long  pre- 
vious, the  chief  seat  of  the  manufacture,  for  the 
learned  senator  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  noble  invention 
of  ingenious  Memphis — that  the  beautiful  texture 
made  in  a  single  spot  should  cover  all  the  writing 
desks  of  the  world."  In  parts  of  his  letter,  which 
we  have  not  quoted,  the  style  of  Senator  Cassi- 
odorus displays  the  flowery  bad  taste  of  its  day, 
but  the  quoted  passages  sound  very  much  like 
what  a  visiting  statesman  of  literary  proclivities 


22 


PAPER :  ITS  GENESIS 


might  write  in  our  time,  referring  to  the  paper 
manufactures  of  Lee,  Dalton  or  Holyoke.  We 
might  quote  further  facts  showing  the  great  value 
of  papyrus  paper  in  the  commerce  of  the  Egyp- 
tian, Greek  and  Roman  world,  but  it  is  unneces- 
sary. It  will  not  be  denied  that  it  held  a  place, 
compared  with  other  products,  quite  as  important 
as  paper  now  does.  But,  although  the  chief 
source  of  the  papyrus  plant  was  in  Egypt,  it  was 
found  elsewhere,  in  less  abundance  and  in  less 
careful  protection  ;  the  Egyptian  preponderance 
being  similar  to  that  of  the  southern  states  of  the 
American  Union  in  the  production  of  cotton. 

The  papyrus,  as  a  writing  material,  is  naturally 
about  equally  durable  with  modern  paper;  but 
two  extraneous  circumstances  have  conduced  to 
the  preservation  of  a  large  number  of  ancient 
specimens.  Over  2,000  rolls  have  been  found  in 
the  excavation  of  the  cities  of  Herculaneum  and 
Pompeii  which  were  buried  in  the  famous  erup- 
tion of  Mount  Vesuvius,  A.  D.,  471  ;  but  the 
greater  number  have  been  found  enwrapped  with 
mummies  in  the  catacombs  of  Egypt,  and  pre- 
served by  the  exclusion  of  the  air  and  the  anti- 
septic powers  of  the  substances  used  in  embalm- 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


23 


ing  the  dead.  The  inscriptions  upon  these  rolls 
are  generally  in  the  Egyptian  characters,  but  fre- 
quently also  in  the  Greek.  They  have  for  the 
most  part  the  brown  color  into  which  ink  in 
which  soot  is  a  large  ingredient  fades,  but  often 
the  black  is  as  brilliant  as  though  written  yes- 
terday. 

It  is  not  within  our  province  to  discuss  the 
historic  or  literary  value  of  the  writings  upon  the 
rolls  of  papyri  which  have  come  down  to  us,  but 
there  is  one  curious  fact  that  comes  within  our 
practical  scope.  It  would  have  been  a  bold 
prophet  who  dared  to  tell  one  of  the  Pharaohs 
upon  his  throne  that,  in  the  lapse  of  ages,  and  be- 
fore they  had  returned  to  dust,  their  tombs  would 
be  ravaged  by  their  semi-barbarous  successors  in 
the  land,  not  only  that  they  might  sell  to  inquisi- 
tive students  from  distant  lands,  the  papyri  in- 
scribed with  the  record  of  their  glories — there 
might  have  been  some  consolation  in  that — but 
in  order  to  export,  to  regions  of  which  they  never 
dreamed,  the  linen  wrappings  in  which  their  em- 
balmed bodies,  and  those  of  their  people,  were  so 
carefully  enveloped,  there  to  be  used  as  a  ma- 
terial in  the  manufacture  of  a  better  paper  than 


24 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


the  Memphis  paper-makers  ever  sent  to  Rome  or 
Alexandria.  And  yet  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Arabs 
have  plundered  the  catacombs,  disrobed  the  mum- 
mies, and  sold  their  wrappings  to  be  sent  to  Eng- 
land and  America  as  paper  rags.  The  Egyptian 
embalmers  showed  their  thrifty  habits  by  using 
for  the  inner  wrappings  second-hand  linen,  whose 
darning  proves  that  the  housewives  of  Pharaoh's 
time  were  as  economical  and  industrious  as  ours  ; 
but,  for  all  that,  the  catacombs  are  a  precious 
linen  mine  to  the  Arab  and  Bedouin  rag-gather- 
ers, who  even  save  the  more  perfectly  preserved 
cloth  for  their  own  garments,  ghastly  as  we 
might  suppose  the  robes  to  be  which,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  have  shrouded  a  corpse.  These 
same  thrifty  modern  Egyptians  find  also,  in  the 
catacombs  of  their  predecessors,  a  rich  coal  mine, 
using  the  wooden  mummy  cases,  and  often  the 
mummies  themselves,  as  fuel.  Impregnated  with 
the  bituminous  and  other  inflammable  substances 
used  in  embalming,  the  wood  burns  like  pitch 
pine  and  the  bodies  'like  cannel  coal.  A  Euro- 
pean explorer,  not  long  ago,  bought  three  asses' 
loads  of  mummy  cases  as  the  only  fuel  he  could 
procure  to  cook  his  food.    How  prodigious  the 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


73 


sometimes  called  a  clerk  and  sometimes  a  work- 
man, in  the  mill  of  Louis  Didot  at  Essonne,  an- 
nounced that  he  had  invented  a  machine  by 
which  he  could,  with  the  aid  of  one  man,  make 
sheets  of  paper  fifty  feet  long  and  twelve  wide. 
But  he  apparently  left  this  incomplete  to  pass  to 
a  more  important  device  in  the  same  direction. 
He  had  an  ardent  passion  for  invention,  and  was 
probably  both  a  clerk  and  workman.  He  was 
ridiculed,  and  even  reproached,  for  wasting  his 
time  and  energies  in  a  pursuit  which  "  could 
never  amount  to  anything ;  "  but  he  persevered 
manfully,  and  soon  completed  a  small  working 
model — "  not  larger  than  a  bird-organ  " — upon 
which  he  made  endless,  or  continuous,  paper,  al- 
though not  wider  than  tape.  From  this  model  a 
machine  was  constructed,  which  in  1799,  at  the 
Essonne  mill,  made  a  continuous  web  of  paper, 
twenty-four  inches  wide — a  size  at  that  time  much 
used  in  France.  The  government  awarded  Rob- 
ert a  patent  upon  his  invention  for  fifteen  years, 
and  a  gratuity  of  8,000  francs.  Shortly  after- 
wards he  sold  to  M.  Leger  Didot  his  patent  and 
small  working  model  for  25,000  francs,  to  be  paid 
in  installments  ;  but  the  payments  not  being  made 


74 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


according  to  agreement,  he  recovered  his  patent 
by  a  decree  of  court  dated  June  23,  1801. 

The  machine  operated  in  1799  was  very  im- 
perfect, and  the  distracted  condition  of  France 
for  many  years  previous  had  left  neither  the 
wealth  of  its  capitalists  nor  the  skill  of  its  me- 
chanics in  a  plight  to  aid  in  the  necessary  im- 
provements. In  this  state  of  affairs,  while  the 
invention  was  still  in  the  hands  of  M.  Leger 
Didot,  he  proposed  to  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  John 
Gamble,  an  Englishman,  to  seek  the  aid  of  British 
capital  and  skill.  Gamble  assented,  and  the 
scheme  was  carried  out,  according  to  one  author- 
ity, with  the  permission  of  the  French  govern- 
ment for  the  transfer ;  which  seems  hardly  prob- 
able as,  to  say  nothing  of  the  intense  international 
jealousies  of  the  period,  France  and  England  were 
at  that  moment  engaged  in  a  bitter  and  critical 
war.  But,  at  any  rate  Didot  somehow  got  safely 
over  the  Channel,  towards  the -end  of  the  year 
1800,  and  with  his  small  model  of  Robert's  ma- 
chine, proceeded  to  London.  In  the  meantime 
Gamble,  who  had  preceded  him,  and  who  held 
some  office  under  the  British  government,  had 
succeeded,  by  his  personal  influence  and  by  ex- 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


75 


hibiting  long  rolls  of  the  paper  made  at  Essonne, 
in  enlisting  the  sympathies  of  a  firm  of  wealthy 
and  liberal  capitalists,  Messrs.  Henry  and  Sealy 
Fourdrinier,  then  the  leading  stationers  of  Lon- 
don. Thus  happy  in  early  obtaining  the  aid  of 
capital,  the  adventurers  were  equally  fortunate  in 
the  employment  of  mechanical  skill  and  genius. 
Dartford  in  Kent,  long  noted  for  the  manufacture 
of  paper  and  paper-making  machinery,  had  in 
Hall's  engineering  establishment,  all  the  tools 
then  known  which  would  be  required  in  the  im- 
proved construction  of  the  novel  automaton  ;  and, 
what  was  of  still  more  consequence,  they  found 
in  Mr.  Hall's  assistant,  Bryan  Donkin,  a  young 
and  zealous  machinist  who  combined  precision  of 
workmanship  with  fertility  of  invention  in  a  re- 
markable degree.  To  this  gentleman  they  en- 
trusted the  development  of  the  inchoate  inven- 
tion;  and  in  1803,  after  almost  three  years  of  the 
most  intense  application,  he  produced  a  self-act- 
ing machine  for  making  an  endless  web  of  paper, 
which,  being  set  up  at  St.  Neot's,  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  Gable,  "  worked  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  astonish  every  spectator." 

From  that  time  Mr.  Donkin  devoted  all  his 


76 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


talents  and  energies  to  the  progressive  improve- 
ment of  "  that  admirable  apparatus,"  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  Dr.  Ure,  "has  by  the  unfailing  regu- 
larity, precision,  promptitude  and  productiveness 
of  its  work,  earned  for  him  a  place  along  with 
Watt,  Wedgewood  and  Arkwright,  in  the  temple 
of  mechanical  fame."  In  the  year  185  i  the  firm 
of  Donkin  &  Co.,  of  which  he  was  the  senior 
partner,  made  their  191st  Fourdrinier  machine. 
They  had  sold  83  for  Great  Britain,  23  for  France, 
46  for  Germany,  22  for  the  north  of  Europe,  14 
for  Italy  and  the  south  of  Europe,  2  for  America 
and  1  for  India. 

In  April,  1801,  Mr.  Gamble  was  granted  a 
patent  upon  the  machine  as  it  then  was,  and  in 
June,  1803,  another  upon  certain  improvements, 
both  of  which  he  assigned  in  1804  to  the  Fourdri- 
niers.  In  1808  he  assigned  his  whole  interest  in 
the  concern  to  the  same  firm,  having  lost  in  the 
enterprise  both  his  fortune  and  eight  years  of  irk- 
some diligence.  In  the  meantime,  in  August, 
1807,  Ris  patent  of  fourteen  years  from  April, 
1801,  was  extended  by  an  act  of  Parliament  for 
seven  years  longer.  The  proprietors  showed 
good  reason,  in  the  enormous  cost  of  their  experi- 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


77 


ments  and  the  national  importance  of  the  inven- 
tion, why  the  extension  should  be  fourteen  years 
instead  of  seven.  There  was  no  objection  to  the 
longer  period  in  the  Commons,  nor  to  its  justice 
in  the  House  of  Lords  ;  but  the  committee  of  the 
latter  said  :  "  Take  seven  years  now,  and  if  your 
remuneration  does  not  prove  sufficient  in  that 
period,  come  again  and  you  shall  have  seven 
more."  And  so  it  would  have  been,  but  for  an 
unworthy  trick  of  Lord  Lauderdale,  the  sole  op- 
ponent of  the  extension,  who  cunningly  got  in- 
serted in  the  rules  of  the  House  of  Lords,  a 
standing  order  that  no  extension  of  a  patent 
should  be  granted  except  toHhe  original  inventor. 
It  was  in  vain  represented  that  Henry  Fourdri- 
nier  was  substantially  such. 

But  even  before  the  expiration  of  the  patent  as 
granted,  the  generous  and  enterprising  Fourdri- 
niers,  who  had  withdrawn  ,£60,000  from  their  sta- 
tionery business  to  further  the  invention,  became 
bankrupt ;  so  many  difficulties  had  they  encoun- 
tered, and  so  little  was  the  aid  which  they  received 
either  from  the  government  or  the  paper  manufact- 
urers of  the  country  they  were  serving  so  well. 
And,  not  only  did  they  receive  no  aid,  but,  after 


78 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


the  bankruptcy,  none  of  their  patent  dues  could 
be  collected,  although  twelve  suits  were  brought 
in  chancery;  "that  unscientific  judge,"  Lord 
Chancellor  Tenterden,  sustaining  certain  frivolous 
and  merely  technical  "objections  to  their  well 
specified  patent."  Says  Dr.  Ure  :  "The  pirat- 
ical tricks  practiced  by  many  considerable  paper- 
makers  against  the  patentees  are  humiliating 
to  human  nature  in  a  civilized,  and  soi  disant 
Christian  community.  Many  of  them  have  owned, 
since  the  bankruptcy  of  the  house  removed  the 
fear  of  prosecution,  that  they  owed  them  from 
,£2,000  to  £"3,000  each."  The  Fourdriniers  died 
in  poverty  ;  Henry,  at  the  age  of  ninety,  as  late 
as  1855. 

In  1806  the  patentees  claimed  that,  while  it 
cost  sixteen  shillings  to  make  a  hundred  weight 
of  paper  by  hand,  with  their  machine  it  could  be 
produced  for  three  shillings  and  sixpence ;  so  that, 
there  being  900  vats  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
with  an  annual  production  of  432,000  cwts.,  the 
saving,  if  the  machine  were  used  by  all  the  mills 
would  be  £"264,000;  or  more  than  three-quarters 
of  the  entire  cost.  Subsequent  statements  of  the 
reduction  of  cost  and   increase  of  production 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


79 


at  various  stages  in  the  improvement  of  the 
machine  give  the  impression  that  the  sanguine 
temperament  of  the  patentees  led  them  into  some 
little  exaggeration  of  the  probable  saving  of 
expense ;  but  the  genius  of  Mr.  Donkin  soon 
brought  it  to  surpass  what  was  claimed.  Thus, 
while  in  1806  five  men  were  required  to  tend  each 
machine,  in  181 3  three  sufficed;  and  these  with- 
out giving  that  close  attention,  or  necessarily  pos- 
sessing the  same  skill  which  was  previously 
demanded.  In  1806  the  machine  was  capable  of 
doing  the  work  of  six  vats  in  twelve  hours  ;  in 
181 3  that  capacity  was  doubled,  and  the  expense 
reduced  to  one-quarter  what  it  was. 

The  advantages  over  hand-making  paper 
claimed  in  181 3  were:  1st.  The  superior  strength, 
firmness  and  appearance  of  the  finished  product. 
2d.  After  leaving  the  machine  the  paper  requires 
less  drying,  pressing  and  pasting,  and  conse- 
quently comes  sooner  to  market.  3d.  The 
quantity  of  broken  paper  and  re-tree  is  as  nothing 
compared  with  what  it  is  in  the  hand-making. 
4th.  The  machine  makes  paper  with  cold  water; 
in  hand -making,  warm  was  required.  5  th.  It  is 
durable  and  little  liable  to  need  repairs.  One 


8o 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


that  has  been  in  use  in  Hertfordshire  for  three 
years  cost  only  ten  pounds  annually  for  repairs. 
6th.  As  paper  mills  are  almost  universally  run  by 
streams  which  vary  considerably  from  time  to 
time  in  their  power,  an  important  advantage  will 
arise  from  the  use  of  the  machine.  The  com- 
mon mill  is  limited  by  the  number  of  its  vats,  so 
that  no  advantage  can  be  taken  of  the  accessions 
of  power  which  frequently  happen  in  the  course 
of  the  year ;  but  where  the  machine  is  employed, 
as  scarcely  any  mills  are  capable  of  preparing  stuff 
for  twelve  vats,  every  accession  of  power  will 
increase  the  product  without  adding  to  the  cost. 
7th.  The  manufacturer  can  suspend  or  resume 
his  work  at  pleasure;  and  he  is,  moreover,  relieved 
from  the  perplexing  difficulties  and  loss  conse- 
quent upon  the  perpetual  combinations  for  the 
increase  of  wages." 

We  have  given  this  statement  the  more  fully 
as,  besides  its  main  object,  it  throws  some  light 
upon  the  state  of  the  manufacture  in  England 
during  the  early  part  of  the  19th  century.  The 
price  of  the  machines  in  1807,  by  Donkin's  sched- 
ule, varied,  according  to  capacity,  from  ^715  to 
^695  for  those  driven  by  belting,  and  from  ^750 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


8l 


to  ,£1,040  for  those  driven  by  wheels.  As  each 
successive  improvement  simplified  the  construc- 
tion, the  price  was  probably  at  least  not  increased 
until  larger  sizes  with  attachments  for  various 
purposes  were  introduced. 

In  the  year  1839,  two  hundred  and  eighty  Four- 
drinier  machines  were  working  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  making  daily  in  the  aggregate  six- 
teen hundred  miles  of  paper,  from  four  to  five 
feet  wide.  The  invention  had  lowered  the  price 
of  paper  fifty  per  cent,  and  added  ,£400,000  to 
the  revenues  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  and,  yet, 
in  the  multitude  of  pensions  which  flowed  from 
the  British  treasury  to  all  sorts  of  persons,  worthy 
and  unworthy,  we  cannot  learn  that  any  went  to 
relieve  the  poverty  of  Henry  or  Sealy  Fourdri- 
nier.  It  is  not  republics  alone  which  are  notably 
ungrateful. 

Some  improvements  have  been  made  in  the 
Fourdrinier  machine  since  181 3,  and  several  most 
valuable  inventions  have  been  added  to,  or  incor- 
porated in  it.  In  the  original  construction  of 
the  machine,  the  lateral  shaking  given  to  the 
wire  web  injured  the  fabric  of  the  pulp  by  bring- 
ing its  fibres  more  closely  together  breadthwise 


82 


PAPER  :  ITS  GEXESIS 


than  lengthwise,  which  tended  to  produce  long 
ribs  in  the  surface  of  the  paper.  In  1828  George 
Dickinson,  an  English  paper-maker,  devised  a 
mode  of  obviating  this  by  giving  an  up  and  down 
motion.  But  Mr.  Donkin  introduced  a  method 
of  governing  the  vibrations  "  in  a  much  more 
mechanical  way,"  which  seems  to  be  the  slice ;  a 
thin  blade  of  steel,  which  crosses  the  wire  web  a 
short  distance  from  the  point  where  the  beaten 
pulp  first  reaches  it,  at  a  height  of  about  an  inch 
and  a  half  from  its  surface.  All  the  "  stuff " 
must  pass  under  this,  and  when  it  emerges  the 
surface  is  not  only  freed  from  lumps,  but  the 
longitudinal  waves  previously  very  perceptible 
have  nearly  or  quite  disappeared,  and  are  not 
reproduced,  the  motion  imparted  to  the  semi- 
liquid  pulp  being  rather  of  a  shivery  character. 
But  the  greatest  difficulty  in  the  use  of  the 
machine,  as  first  constructed,  was  to  remove  the 
water  from  the  pulp  and  condense  it  with  suf- 
ficient rapidity  to  prevent  it  becoming  water 
galled,  and  permit  the  web  to  proceed  directly  to 
the  drying  cylinders.  In  1830  John  Wilks,  a 
partner  of  Bryan  Donkin,  remedied  this  by 
adding  a  perforated  and  channeled  roller,  called  a 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


«3 


dandy,  which  facilitates  the  escape  of  the  water 
at  this  stage  in  the  progress  of  the  web. 

In  the  same  year-  Thomas  Barrett,  another 
Englishman,  invented  a  method  of  introducing 
the  water-mark  in  continuous  paper,  by  means  of 
engraved  plates  of  thin  metal  attached  to  the 
surface  of  the  "dandy."  "It  is  to  this  ingenious 
man,"  says  Munsell,  "  that  we  are  also  indebted 
for  the  improved  means  of  finishing  paper,  owing 
to  the  perfection  he  attained  in  making  cast- 
iron  rollers  more  true  than  was  possifre  by  the 
old  mode  of  turning  them  in  a  lathe.  His 
method,  which  is  now  adopted  in  finishing  all 
rollers  requiring  great  accuracy,  consists  in  grind- 
ing the  rollers  together  for  many  weeks,  merely 
allowing  a  small  stream  of  water  to  run  over 
them  without  emery  or  other  grinding  material. 

In  1830,  Richard  Ibotsford,  an  Englishman, 
invented  an  apparatus  for  separating  the  knots 
from  paper  stuff,  which  the  sieves  or  strainers  in 
use  could  not  do  effectually.  It  was  previously 
necessary,  both  in  hand  and  machine  making,  to 
pick  lumps  from  the  paper  after  it  was  made, 
which  left  it  often  in  a  damaged  state,  and  still 
did  not  entirely  free  it  from  imperfections  which 


84 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


were  liable  to  seriously  damage  type  and  wood 
cuts.  In  1 82 1,  T.  B.  Crompton,  still  another 
Englishman,  took  out  a  patent  for  drying  and 
finishing  paper  by  means  of  a  cloth  against 
heated  cylinders,  and  also  for  the  application  of 
shears  to  cut  the  paper  into  suitable  lengths  as  it 
issues  from  the  machine.  In  183 1,  Edward  Pine 
of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  E.  N.  Fourdrinier  patented 
a  very  ingenious  apparatus  for  cutting  continuous 
paper  into  lengths. 

The  above  and  other  inventions,  made  since 
181 3,  have  been,  or  may  be,  applied  to  the 
Fourdrinier  machine,  of  which  a  fine  specimen 
built  about  1876,  by  George  Bertram  of  Edin- 
burgh, is  thus  described  in  Knight's  American 
Mechanical  Dictionary :  "  It  is  of  the  class  known 
as  an  eighty-inch  machine — that  is,  the  endless 
wire  web  upon  which  the  pulp  flows,  is  eighty 
inches  wide  and  thirty-three  feet  long;  being 
capable  of  forming  paper  over  six  feet  wide,  after 
the  edges  are  trimmed,  and  of  indefinite  length. 
The  machine  is  sixty-eight  feet  long."  The 
largest  made  by  Donkin  in  the  year  1806  was 
about  thirty  feet  long,  and  made  paper  only  fifty- 
four  inches  wide. 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


85 


The  operation  of  the  Bertram  machine  is  thus 
described  : 

The  pulp- — (whole  stuff)  from  the  heating 
cylinder  is  admitted  to  the  receptacle,  denomi- 
nated a  chest,  through  a  strainer,  which  consists 
of  a  sheet  of  metal  perforated  with  slits.  It  is 
here  constantly  agitated  by  a  stirrer — or  revolv- 
ing frame — and  is  then  driven  in  a  stream  into  a 
second  and  smaller  chamber,  where  it  is  again 
stirred  by  a  similar  agitator.  After  passing  over 
a  channeled  plate,  by  which  extraneous  matters 
of  greater  specific  gravity  than  the  pulp  are 
arrested,  it  is  then  delivered  on  to  the  endless 
wire  web  or  apron,  which  answers  to  the  mould 
of  the  hand  manufacturer.  To  this  the  lateral, 
or  sidewise  shaking  movement  is  given, — in  imi- 
tation also  of  the  hand-maker, — in  order  to  dis- 
tribute the  fluid  pulp  evenly  over  the  surface. 
This  wire  web  is  supported  by  a  large  number  of 
small  rollers.  The  width  of  the  paper  is  gov- 
erned by  deckle  straps, — answering  to  the  deckle 
frame  of  the  hand  manufacturer,  which  are  car- 
ried by  rollers,  their  tension  being  regulated  by  a 
peculiar  device.  Next,  a  vacuum  box  from  which 
the  air  is  partially  exhausted  by  a  set  of  air 


r 


86 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


pumps,  withdraws  a  portion  of  the  moisture  from 
the  sheet  as  it  passes  over  it.  The  sheet  is  then 
carried,  still  on  the  wire  apron  between  cloth- 
covered  rollers,  by  the  lower  one  of  which,  and 
others  specially  provided,  the  apron  returns  to 
the  point  from  which  it  started,  to  receive  a  fresh 
supply  of  pulp,  and  again  pursue  its  round. 
The  paper  sheet,  parting  from  the  apron,  is 
transferred  to  a  felt  blanket,  which  conveys  it  to 
the  press  rolls.  These  are  solid,  and  over  the 
upper  one  is  a  thin  edge-bar,  which  removes 
adhering  particles  of  the  fiber  from  the  roll,  and 
also  serves  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the  paper 
should  it  stick  to  the  roll,  thus  preventing  injury 
to  the  blanket.  These  rolls  are  adjusted  in  their 
bearings  by  a  screw,  so  as  to  exert  greater  or  less 
power,  as  may  be  desired.  The  blanket  then 
conveys  the  sheet  to  a  position  where  it  is 
received  by  a  second  set  of  press-rollers,  which 
farther  compress  it,  and  expel  more  of  its  moist- 
ure. After  passing  the  press^  rolls,  the  paper  is 
received  upon  a  second  endless  blanket,  which 
carries  it  to  the  first  of  a  series  of  steam-heated 
cylinders,  between  which  it  is  partially  dried  and 
then  conveyed  between  other  pressure  rollers  to 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


87 


a  second  set  of  drying  cylinders.  Thence,  after 
being  subjected  successively  to  the  pressing  and 
stretching  action  of  a  series  of  rollers,  it  is 
delivered  on  to  a  cylindrical  reel.  Registering 
mechanism  indicates  when  the  proper  quantity 
has  thus  been  delivered;  when  the  reel  is  re- 
moved and  a  new  one  substituted. 

In  modern  machine-paper-making  there  are 
some  variations  from  old  methods  in  the  proc- 
esses, both  before  the  pulp  reaches  the  machine 
and  after  the  paper  leaves  it  in  an  unfinished 
state ;  some  of  which  we  enumerate. 

Two  kinds  of  sizing  are  used,  vegetable  and 
animal;  both  generally  made  in  the  mill.  For- 
merly animal  size,  or  gelatine,  was  employed 
exclusively ;  but  when  mixed  with  the  pulp  in 
the  vat,  it  was  found  to  injure  the  felt  with  which 
it  came  in  contact  in  subsequent  stages  of  manu- 
facture, and  also  the  paper,  and  in  1827,  Canson 
Brothers,  in  France,  patented  a  substitute,  the 
base  of  which  was  wax  ;  and  in  the  same  year, 
M.  Delcambre  produced  another,  the  base  being 
rosin,  to  which  powdered  alum  was  added.  This 
last  is  the  vegetable  size  now  used,  and  when  pre- 
pared, it  closely  resembles  mustard  prepared  for 


88 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


the  table.  Gelatine  continues  to  be  used  as  an 
animal  size,  and  is  still  made  from  the  shreds  of 
parchment  and  raw  hide,  chiefly  the  latter.  Be- 
fore it  is  dissolved  for  the  size  bath,  it  is  a  beauti- 
ful light  amber-colored  jelly,  and  cannot  be  dis- 
tinguished either  by  the  eye  or  the  taste  from  the 
table  luxury  known  as  "calves' foot  jelly;"  indeed, 
it  is  essentially  the  same  thing,  and  properly 
flavored,  is  often  served  up  under  that  name  by 
high-toned  caterers  to  unsuspecting  epicures. 
While  the  paper  manufacture  was  of  small  extent 
in  America,  the  shreds  of  hide  from  which  the 
gelatine  is  made  were  furnished  by  the  native 
tanneries,  now  they  are  chiefly  imported,  although 
there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  for  it.  The  veg- 
etable size  is  mixed  with  the  pulp  in  the  vat, 
when  it  is  intended  for  printing  paper,  and  some- 
times, when  it  is  desired  to  make  a  specially 
hard  writing  paper.  It  thus  becomes  thoroughly 
mixed  with  the  fiber.  This  is  all  the  sizing  re- 
quired for  printing  paper.  When  writing  paper 
is  made,  no  size  is  ordinarily  mixed  with  the 
pulp ;  but  in  the  special  cases,  when  it  is  so 
mixed,  an  exterior  coating  of  .  gelatine  is  after- 
wards applied. 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


89 


Some  improvements  have  also  been  made  in 
the  rag  engines  so  that  they  stand  more  firmly, 
and.  are  more  neatly  made,  and  also  more  freely 
discharge  the  water.  Mr.  E.  D.  Jones,  of  Pitts- 
field,  has  patented  valuable  devices  for  the  more 
easy,  convenient  and  satisfactory  elevation  and 
depression  of  the  cutting  cylinder,  (or  rolls)  and 
for  other  purposes  connected  with  the  same. 
Mr.  Jones  has  also  patented  an  improved  washer, 
and  a  back  fall  which  enables  the  machine  to 
turn  the  stuff  more  rapidly  without  overflowing. 
Messrs.  Smith,  Winchester  &  Co.,  of  South 
Windham,  Connecticut,  manufacture  the  Jordan 
beating  engine  for  the  purpose  of  cleaning  stuff 
after  it  has  been  three-quarters  beaten,  which  is 
said  to  work  so  perfectly  that  nothing  can  pass 
through  it  without  being  brushed. 

The  water  for  the  rag  engines  must  be  of  the 
purest  quality,  and  is  now  generally  supplied 
from  springs,  through  pipes,  and  a  hydrant  fur- 
nished with  a  stop  cock.  Some  of  these  springs 
furnish  an  immense  amount  of  water.  Pumps 
have  been  invented  for  the  transfer  of  half  stuff, 
and  for  similar  purposes ;  and  a  fan  pump  for 
various  purposes,  but  particularly  for  conveying 


V 


9o 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


back  the  water  which  passes  through  the  wire  on 
the  Fourdrinier  machine.  Indeed  there  is  no 
end  to  the  devices  which  have  been  invented  to 
perfect  the  engines  and  the  machine,  and  facili- 
tate their  working.  We  have  enumerated  merely 
a  few,  which  seem  to  work  a  decided  change  in 
some  important  portions  of  the  manufacture. 

Printing  paper  is  finished  when  it  has  passed 
the  drying  cylinders  last  spoken  of  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  machine,  and  it  is  there  cut  into 
sheets  by  the  shears. 

In  the  further  finishing  of  writing  paper,  the 
common  English  and  the  common  American 
practice  differ.  In  the  English  mills,  the  gelatin- 
ous sizing,  the  subsequent  drying,  the  cutting 
into  sheets,  the  calendering  and  the  folding,  are 
all  done  automatically  by  machines  attached  to 
the  Fourdrinier,  through  which  the  paper  suc- 
cessively passes  without  aid  from  the  workmen. 
This  gives  rapid  work,  but  the  product  is  not 
considered  absolutely  perfect,  and  it  is  probably 
for  this  reason,  that  some  hand-making  establish- 
ments still  exist  in  great  Britain.  The  American 
manufacturers,  endeavoring  to  combine  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  old  and  the  new  methods,  remove 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


91 


the  damp  paper  from  the  machine,  after  it  has 
passed  through  a  bath  of  gelatinous  size  and 
been  cut  into  sheets.  It  is  then  taken  to  lofts 
and  dried  as  in  hand-making.  After  hanging 
about  three  days,  it  is  taken  to  a  room  answering 
to  the  saul  of  the  hand-makers,  and  after  exami- 
nation is  calendered,  each  sheet  being  passed  sepa- 
rately by  hand  between  iron  rollers  which  subject 
it  to  an  immense  pressure.  It  is  then  folded, 
packed  in  quires  and  reams,  and  goes  to  market. 

The  early  process  of  finishing  paper  by  pres- 
sure between  sheets  of  polished  paste-board — 
made  in  the  mill — was  superseded  by  calendering 
paper,  the  sheets  being  placed  between  copper- 
plates and  passed  several  times  through  powerful 
iron  rollers,  the  product  being  sometimes  called 
copper-plate  paper.  This  method  continued  in 
use  until  quite  recently,  but  now  has  given  place 
to  what  is  called  super-sheet  calendering,  in  which 
the  paper  is  passed  between  rollers,  one  of  which 
is  made  of  chilled  iron,  and  the  other  of  com- 
pressed paper,  surrounding  an  iron  shaft.  The 
paper  is  of  the  strongest  kind — commonly  manil- 
la — and  is  compressed  by  immense  hydraulic 
power. 


92 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


The  American  Loft-dried  Paper  of  Commerce. 

Of  this  there  are  many  qualities,  depending 
upon  the  raw  material  used,  the  management  and 
machinery  of  individual  mills,  and  other  circum- 
stances ;  but,  as  a  class,  it  has  no  superior.  This 
could  have  been  said  of  it  for  years  past  in  regard 
to  the  ordinary  purposes  of  paper ;  but  for  the 
uses  of  luxury,  and  for  what  are  known  as  wed- 
ding goods,  paper  was,  until  quite  recently, 
imported :  now  the  very  choicest  article  of  this 
class,  known  as  plate  paper,  is  made  in  America. 
In  this,  the  stock  is  most  carefully  selected,  every 
process  of  the  manufacture  sedulously  watched, 
and  in  the  calendering  a  press  much  more  power- 
ful even  than  that  commonly  used,  is  employed, 
while  in  it  the  sheets  are  placed  between  plates 
of  polished  zinc.  The  press  used  for  this  pur- 
pose, in  the  mill  of  Z.  Crane,  Jr.,  and  Brother,  at 
Dalton,  exerts  a  force  equal  to  330  tons  weight. 
The  result  is  an  exquisitely  finished  surface, 
rivaling  satin  or  ivory  in  beauty. 

The  cost  of  the  machinery  required  in  the 
immense  establishments  which  fill  the  place  of 
the  little  one  or  two  vat  mills  of  seventy  or  eighty 
years  ago  (or  in  America  fifty  years  ago),  may  be 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


93 


partly  estimated  by  that  of  some  of  the  leading 
articles :  Thus,  a  Fourdrinier  machine  of  the 
very  first  class  in  size  and  workmanship,  is  worth 
$12,000,  from  which  the  price  decreases  to  per- 
haps $7,000;  the  rag  engines,  of  which  there  are 
necessarily  several  to  each  machine,  from  $1,000 
to  $2,000  each;  the  calendering  machines  from 
$500  to  $1,000  ;  the  plating  machines,  from  $600 
to  $1,400  each. 

The  Fourdrinier  machine  made  its  way  slowly 
at  first,  except  in  the  British  Empire.  It  was 
not  until  the  year  181 5,  that  the  invention  of 
Louis  Robert  returned  to  its  birth-place,  with  the 
various  improvements  made  in  it  by  English 
skill,  capital  and  persistence ;  and  the  first  Four- 
drinier machine  was  made  in  France.  In  1820  it 
was  first  introduced  into  the  United  States,  one 
of  English  manufacture  being  placed  in  Gilpin's 
mill,  on  the  Brandywine.  In  1828  there  were 
"a  number  of  these  machines  in  the  country,  of 
which  six  —  one  to  every  ten  mills  —  were  in 
Massachusetts." 

The  first  Fourdrinier  machines  manufactured 
in  America,  were  built  about  the  year  1830,  by 
Messrs.  Phelps  &  Spofford  at  Windham,  Con- 


r 


94 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


necticut,  at  which  time,  or  a  little  before,  a  great 
impetus  seems  to  have  been  given  to  the  paper 
business  of  the  country,  as  is  illustrated  by  a 
statement  of  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce, 
that  although  the  dimensions  of  its  sheet  had 
been  quadrupled  in  the  preceding  five  years,  the 
improvements  in  paper  machinery  had  been  so 
great  that  the  cost  was  reduced  25  per  cent. 

Whether  this  gain  was  made  through  the 
Fourdrinier  or  a  rival  machine,  may  be  doubted. 
In  1809,  John  Dickinson,  an  English  manufact- 
urer, patented  a  machine  to  which  he  afterwards 
added  valuable  improvements,  which  makes  a 
continuous  web  upon  a  different  principle  from 
that  of  Fourdrinier,  the  paper  being  excellent, 
especially  for  printing  purposes.  In  this  machine, 
a  hollow  polished  brass  cylinder,  perforated  with 
holes  or  slits,  and  covered  with  wire  cloth,  takes 
the  place  of  the  endless  wire  web  of  the  Four- 
drinier. In  the  cylinder  the  air  is  exhausted 
through  the  trunnions  or  axes  of  the  machine. 
The  Dickinson  machine  was  introduced  in  the 
American  mills  before  the  Fourdrinier,  and  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  favorite.  Owing  to  its 
cheapness,  it  is  still  much  used  for  making  straw 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


95 


and  other  inferior  classes  of  paper.  In  1872, 
when  there  were  299  Fourdrinier  machines  run- 
ning in  the  United  States,  there  were  689  cylinder 
machines. 

In  1822,  John  Ames,  son  and  successor  of 
David  Ames,  who  established  himself  as  a  paper- 
maker  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  some  years 
before  Zenas  Crane  located  at  Dalton,  produced 
a  cylinder  machine  which,  it  was  thought,  would 
have  a  great  success.  To  what  extent  it  was 
actually  introduced,  we  cannot  say.  Between 
1822  and  1837,  Mr.  Ames  took  out  four  other 
patents'  for  improvements  in  paper-making  ma- 
chinery. 

Later  inventions  of  paper-making  machines 
seem  to  have  been  aimed  at  cheapness  of  con- 
struction, or  at  making  thicker  paper  by  means 
of  a  double  web.  Scanlan's  machine,  with  the 
latter  object,  combines  the  Fourdrinier  and  the 
cylinder,  and  the  outer  and  inner  surface  may  be 
of  different  texture  and  colors.  James  Harper 
of  New  Haven  has  an  invention  for  the  same 
purpose  which  is  claimed  to  have  advantages 
over  every  other.  The  Harris  machine  is  also 
a  double  web. 


r 


96 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


The  rags  and  other  material  from  which  paper 
is  made,  form  a  very  large  item  of  its  cost.  The 
gathering  of  these  from  the  scattered  families  of 
the  country  by  tin  peddlers  and  others,  which 
has  been  continued  to  this  day,  furnished  a  sup- 
ply sufficient  for  the  manufacture  in  its  infancy  ; 
the  prizes  of  bright  tin  ware  teaching  the  econ- 
omy of  saving  them  better,  perhaps,  than  money. 
How  much  the  quaint  appeals,  in  prose  and  verse, 
of  the  manufacturers  and  newspaper  editors, 
"  begging  the  ladies  to  save  their  rags  "  had  to 
do  with  the  lesson,  we  can  only  guess.  But  with 
the  growth  of  the  manufacture,  the  home  supply 
soon  became  inadequate,  and  great  quantities  of 
rags  have  long  been  annually  imported,  as  will 
appear  in  statistics  to  be  given  in  the  closing 
portion  of  this  book.  They  are  drawn  from  all 
countries  in  the  old  world,  except  those  having 
large  paper  industries  of  their  own,  which  are 
obliged  themselves  to  import.  If  men  have  not 
robbed  the  cradle  to  supply  this  demand,  they 
certainly  have  the  grave,  for,  as  we  have  said  in 
another  connection,  the  catacombs  of  Egypt  have 
been  ravaged  to  sell  the  linen  cerements  of  the 
mummies  to  the  rag  dealers.    But  with  even  this 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


97 


aid,  the  supply  became  limited  and  rags  rose  in 
price.  The  demand  for  substitutes  began  early 
in  the  present  century,  and  the  search  for  them 
has  continued  ever  since.  Knight's  Dictionary 
prints,  in  Nonpareil  type,  a  list  of  the  articles 
which  have  been  used  or  suggested,  and  if  it 
were  in  a  continuous  column  it  would  measure 
forty-six  inches.  Those  who  have  read  the  first 
section  of  this  book  need  not  be  told  that  the 
use  of  wood,  reeds  and  the  like  substance  as  a 
material  for  paper,  is  not  a  thing  of  recent  cen- 
turies in  the  world,  whatever  it  may  be  in  Europe 
and  America.  However,  a  good  many  things 
have  to  be  discovered  more  than  once  in  this 
wide  world,  and  new  methods  of  better  doing  the 
old  work  go  on  forever.  And  thus  in  the  year 
1800,  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  presented  to  our 
old  friend,  King  George  III.,  who  had  such  a 
repugnance  to  paper-making  in  America,  a  book 
printed  upon  paper  made  of  straw.  We  have 
little  doubt  that  the  paper  was  made  and  the 
book  written  by  Matthias  Koops,  who,  in  1801, 
"  succeeded  in  making  the  most  perfect  paper 
from  straw,  wood  and  other  vegetables,  without 
the  addition  of  any  other  known  paper  stuff"." 


98 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


He  printed  a  book  upon  the  fabric  from  these 
materials,  and  concerning  them,  from  which 
Munsell  gathered  many  facts  for  his  Chronology. 
During  a  rag  famine  in  Germany,  in  1756,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  use  straw  in  the  paper 
manufacture,  and  a  book  was  published  giving  a 
plan  for  reducing  all  vegetables  to  pulp.  Prob- 
ably Koops,  who,  from  his  name,  appears  to  have 
been  at  least  of  German  decent,  had  seen  or 
heard  of  it.  "  He  seems  also  to  have  been  the 
first  to  discover  a  mode  of  extracting  printing 
and  writing  ink  from  waste  paper.  He  obtained 
a  patent  for  manufacturing  paper  from  straw, 
hay,  thistles,  waste  and  refuse  hemp  and  flax,  and 
different  kinds  of  wood,  fit  for  printing  and 
almost  all  other  purposes  for  which  paper  is 
used.  He  claimed  to  have  produced  the  first 
useful  paper  that  had  ever  been  made  from  straw 
alone."  But  rag  famines  were  at  that  time  rare, 
and  little  if  any  use  was  made  of  Koops'  dis- 
covery. 

In  1824,  Louis  Lambert,  a  Frenchman,  took 
out  a  patent  for  an  improved  method  of  reducing 
straw  to  pulp  and  extracting  the  coloring  and 
other  deleterious  matter,  so  that  it  could  be  used 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


99 


in  the  ordinary  rag  engine.  In  1827,  Wm. 
Magaw  of  Meadville,  Pa.,  patented  a  mode  of 
preparing  hay,  straw,  and  similar  substances  for 
making  paper.  The  product  was  said  to  be 
yellowish,  but  even  and  strong,  and  to  receive 
ink  as  well  as  common  writing  paper.  Paper 
was  made  under  this  patent  at  Chambersburg, 
Pa.,  in  1828,  and  it  was  stated  in  the  newspapers 
that  machinery  was  being  constructed  to  make  300 
reams  of  it  a  day.  Louis  Bomeisler  of  Philadel- 
phia, in  1829,  obtained  a  patent  for  making  straw 
writing  paper,  white  and  handsome. 

For  bluing  and  bleaching  paper  Smalts  were 
used  exclusively  until  1840.  At  that  time  some 
paper-makers  in  Germany  and  at  Annanay,  in 
France,  tried  to  substitute  Ultramarine,  on  ac- 
count of  its  being  cheaper  and  offering  less  dif- 
ficulties in  its  application.  They  were  not  suc- 
cessful however,  as  it  did  not  resist  the  action  of 
the  alum.  Artificial  Ultramarine  was  discovered 
in  1827-28,  by  Woehler,  in  Germany,  and  Guimet, 
in  France,  and  was  first  sold  at  about  $4  a  pound, 
while  natural  Ultramarine  obtained  from  Lapis 
Lazuli,  was  selling  at  $80  per  pound.  About 
1852  a  few  manufacturers  succeeded  in  preparing 


IOO 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


alum  proof  Ultramarine,  which  came  quickly  into 
general  use  for  bluing,  and  more  particularly  for 
bleaching  or  whitening  paper.  There  is  no  other 
substance  nor  process  known  that  will  give  the 
paper  a  more  permanent  and  softer  whiteness,  or 
a  more  durable  blue  tint. 

The  process  of  making  alum  proof  Ultra- 
marine is  as  yet  only  known  to  a  limited  number 
of  manufacturers.  All  attempts  to  produce  it  in 
this  country  failed,  until  a  few  years  ago,  the  firm 
of  Hoffman  &  Kiessig  of  New  York,  commenced 
'to  turn  out  an  article  which  compares  most  favor- 
ably with  the  best  known  German  and  French 
brands,  and  finds  a  ready  sale.  Blue  Anilines 
are  used  as  a  substitute  for  Ultramarine  on  book 
and  news, — mostly  cheap  goods, — but  scarcely 
on  writing  paper.  While  they  have  high  color- 
ing qualities,  they  lack  bleaching  power,  and 
above  all,  fastness  of  color.  For  a  while  Aniline 
took,  to  some  extent,  the  place  of  Ultramarine, 
but  time  having  shown  how  quickly  it  fades,  it  is 
now  used  less.  It  is  used  to  best  advantage 
where  the  pulp  has  been  first  whitened  with 
Ultramarine.  The  process  observed  in  applying 
the  Ultramarine  is  as  follows  : 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


IOI 


Before  putting  it  into  the  engine,  it  is  sepa- 
rately dissolved,  i  pound  of  Ultramarine  in  one 
quart  of  warm  water.  To  avoid  spots,  an  ounce 
of  Soda  Ash  is  added  for  every  pound  used  of 
Ultramarine. 

In  all  colors  where  Ultramarine  is  used  for 
whitening  it  is  put  in  by  itself ;  the  second  color 
is  dissolved  separately  in  boiling  water,  put  in 
boiling  hot,  and  dashed  off  with  cold  water.  By 
this  method  a  very  brilliant  hue  is  obtained.  A 
great  variety  of  beautiful  and  lasting  green 
shades,  particularly  in  writing  paper,  are  obtained 
with  Ultramarine  through  a  combination  with 
chrome  yellow. 

In  1854  a' practical  chemist  exhibited  in  New 
York  a  superior  quality  of  paper  made  entirely 
from  straw  and  other  grasses,  claiming  to  have 
discovered  a  process  of  freeing  them  from  their 
silex  and  other  detrimental  substances.  In  1855 
the  Saratoga  Whig -was  printed  upon  paper  made 
three-fourths  of  straw,  by  Buchanan  &  Kilman 
of  Rock  City,  who  employed  a  French  Bleaching 
process  and  made  a  good  writing  and  printing 
article.  Improvements  continued  to  be  made 
and  the  manufacture  extended,  until,  in  1870, 


r 


\ 


I02 


PAPER:  ITS  GENESIS 


when  superfine  book  paper  ruled  at  20  to  24 
cents,  and  fine  book  paper  at  16  to  17  cents,  the 
newspapers  were  mostly  supplied  with  straw 
paper  at  from  12  to  1 2 1  cents.  The  manufacture 
of  paper  from  wood  reduced  to  a  pulp  has  not 
been  so  rapid,  or  extended  so  widely  as  that  from 
straw,  but  excellent  results  have  been  obtained, 
and  a  large  quantity  of  the  pulp  is  now  annu- 
ally used. 

We  give  some  statistics  from  Appleton  show- 
ing, to  some  extent,  the  growth  of  the  paper 
manufacture  in  the  United  States  since  the 
period  of  which  we  have  already  given  the  facts : 

In  18 10  the  number  of  mills  in  the  United 
States  was  estimated  at  185,  of  which  7  were  in 
New  Hampshire,  38  in  Massachusetts,  4  in 
Rhode  Island,  17  in  Connecticut,  9  in  Vermont, 
28  in  New  York,  60  in  Pennsylvania,  4  in  Dela- 
ware, 3  in  Maryland,  4  in  Virginia,  1  in  South 
Carolina,  6  in  Kentucky  and  4  in  Tennessee. 
They  produced  annually  50,000  reams  of  news- 
paper, valued  at  $3.00  per  ream ;  70,000  reams  of 
book  paper  at  #3.50;  111,000  reams  of  writing 
paper  at  $3.00,  and  100,000  reams  of  wrapping 
paper  at  85  cents. 


V 


r 


AND  ITS  REVELATIONS. 


103 


In  1828  the  newspapers  consumed  104,400 
reams,  costing  $500,000,  and  the  total  value  of 
all  the  paper  made  was  nearly  $7,000,000,  and  of 
the  rags  and  other  materials  used  about  $2,000,- 
000.  In  1839  and  1840,  the  value  of  the  rags 
imported  each  year  was  $560,000,  of  paper  im- 
ported, $150,000,  and  of  paper  exported,  $85,000. 
In  1850  the  value  of  rags  imported  was  $748,707, 
three-quarters  coming  from  Austrian  and  Italian 
ports,  at  a  cost  of  $3.16  per  hundred  pounds. 
The  imports  of  paper  in  the  same  year  amounted 
to  $496,593.  The  capital  invested  in  the  manu- 
facture in  the  United  States  was  about  $18,000,- 
000,  and  the  annual  product  of  paper  about 
$17,000,000.  In  1870  there  were,  in  the  United 
States,  exclusive  of  paper-hanging  manufactories, 
669  establishments,  mainly  making  printing, 
writing  and  wrapping  paper,  with  a  capital  of 
$34,365,014,  and  products  valued  at  $48,676,985. 
Of  those,  117  in  New  York  produced  $10,301,- 
563;  sixty-five  in  Massachusetts,  $6,661,886; 
seventy-five  in  Pennsylvania,  $5,176,646;  forty- 
three  in  Ohio,  $3,799,505,  and  sixty  in  Connecti- 
cut, $2,715,630. 

In  Sept.,  1882,  the  number  of  paper  and  pulp 


PAPER. 


mills  in  the  United  States  was  1040.  Since  1870 
the  expansion  of  the  paper  industry  has  been 
very  great,  especially  in  Massachusetts.  In  the 
very  latest  years  many  new  mills  have  sprung  up 
in  the  West. 

We  have  thus  attempted  to  trace  the  story  of 
one  of  the  grandest  and  most  important  of  the 
industries  of  civilization,  from  the  earliest  years 
of  the  earliest  nations  to  the  latest  year  of  the 
youngest.  In  this  space  at  our  command,  we 
could  not  be  expected  to  treat  so  large  a  subject 
profoundly,  or  to  exhaust  it;  but  we  have  endeav- 
ored to  give  some  correct  notice  of  it,  and  if  we 
have  approximately  succeeded,  it  was  worth  the 
endeavor. 


THE  CAMPBELL 


TWO-REVOLUTION 


JOB  AND  BOOK  PRESS. 


THE  ABOVE  CUT  REPRESENTS  THE 


IMPROYEDSCHMPBELL 


OB  MD  BOOK  PRESS. 


TWO-REYOLUTION. 


On  which  this  work  was  printed ;  showing,  that  while  our  brethren  of  the  paper 
craft  have  been  improving  their  manufactures,  we  have  made  rapid 
strides  towards  perfection  in  furnishing  the  machinery 
that  makes  their  fabric  of  such  inestima- 
ble benefit  to  mankind. 


CAMPBELL  PRINTING  PRESS  &  MFG.  CO, 

145  Monroe  St.,  CHICAGO.  |  45  Beekman  St.,  NEW  YORK. 


r 


George  Westinghouse,  Jf 
President. 


Ralph  Bagaley, 
Secretary  and  Treasurer, 


H.  H.  Westinghouse, 
Superintendent. 


THE  WESTINGHOUSE  ENGINE. 


Two  to  150-horse  power.  Dispenses  entirely  with  skilled  engineers.  For  a  relay  to 
deficient  water  power  ;  for  steam  mills  ;  for  driving  paper  machinery.  Requires  neither 
lining-up,  keying-up,  adjustment,  packing,  oiling  or  wiping.  May  be  set  on  a  floor  with- 
out foundations.  Equal  to  the  best  in  economy  of  steam.  The  superior  of  all  in  cost  of 
maintenance.  Parts  built  strictly  to  gauge,  and  interchangeable  without  regard  to  size. 
Send  for  illustrated  circular  and  price  list. 

THE  WESTINGHOUSE  MACHINE  CO.,  92  and  94  Liberty  St.,  N.  Y. 

Works  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


ORIGINAL  PATENTEES. 

The  American 
o  Paper  Coivr 


MANUFACTURERS  OF 


Pure  Bleached  Chemical  Fibre 


DRY  IN  ROLLS. 


SUITABLE  FOR 


BOOK  FINE  NEWS,  AND  WRITING  PAPERS. 


For  Samples  and  Terms 

Agent, 


L.  B.  CAT.  NO.  113  UILDINL 


YORK. 


Address  to  Post-Office  Box  1809. 


Charles  0.  Brown,  Prest. 


Established  1801. 


John  D.  Carson,  Treas. 


3»6  *■ 

ie  Linen      dg  .  taper.] 


[The  above  cut  is  a  fac-s: 

OLD  BFRKSR   E  MIL  S 


1 


INEN  LEDGER  ?P  PER, 


Will  stand  the  reveres  test  of  Color,    7*'fnate,  Ink  or  .  Vear. 

Being  TRIPLE  SIZED  (a  process  entirely  our  own),  and  LOFT  DRIED,  can  be  erased  and 
written  upon  the  fifth  time  distinctly.    None  genuine  without  the  water-mark,  thus 

Old  Berkshire  Mills,  Linen  Ledger, 

AND  DATE. 

We  will  pay  for  any  book  rejected  on  account  of  fault  in  the  paper.  Send  for  Samples,  test  them  in 
comparison,  and  see  that  your  books  are  made  from  paper  thus  water-marked. 

CARSON  &  BROWN  CO.,  Manufacturers, 

DALTON,  MASS.,  U.  S.  A. 


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